Home is Where the Heart is

I miss The Village Church with everything that is in me.

I miss the teaching. I miss the people. I miss the community. I

miss my small group. I miss my precious sweet high school girls I worked with.

I.Miss.It.All.

It’s the place the Lord slapped me in the face and told me, “It’s time to get real.”

It’s the place where I saw how community was played out and how life was done together in honest, biblical fellowship.

It’s the place where I realized that it’s okay that I’m not okay, I just can’t stay tha

t way.

It’s the place where I was baptized.

It’s the place where the Lord showed me His true nature and the foundation of my theology was formed.

It’s the place where the Lord showed me that no where in the Bible does it say, “Love God and everything else will work out for you.”

It’s the place where God, in His loving mercy, brought me to give me the biggest wake-up call I ever needed (well... up to this po

int any ways haha).

But that’s thing, all it is, is a place.

As I listened to Matt Chandler’s most recent message though, I was left in tears

in my dorm room at the end of it. A college

Then the sermon ended, and I was left in the silence only hearing my lungs try to take in gasps of air and leftover tears stream down my face.kid, crying over the fact she has Christ Jesus interceding for me. Crying over the fact my Sunday’s look incredibly different than they did last year. Crying over the fact that my Sunday’s will probably never look like that again. Crying over the fact I miss every aspect of my old church.

The things I loved the most was not the teaching or the music though(although that is what got me there and I am still mildly obsessed with), the things I loved the most were the memories with people, the hugs I received when I bared the darkest parts of me, the laughs I shared, the community, the things the Lord taught me there.

These are things I missed. Although these all took place in a building called The Village Church, they occurred because of the Lord. The Lord is not just in Flower Mound, Tex

as either. The Lord is College Station, Texas. He is in my dorm room with me as I miss my community. He is with me as I weep for the fact I do not deserve His love. He is with me. He is with me. He is with me.

I found a church, but not without some resentment of my stubborn heart. The Lord brought me this church and fully exposed to me that this is my new home (let's be honest, at one random point in the sermon, the pastor says, "You can sit at home all day listening to your Matt Chandler sermons, but that's not what a church is!!..." and continue

d on from there for a solid 5 minutes ending with "um, I'm not sure where that came from, back to my actual notes now..."...ugh okay, God. Got the message. haha!), but my heart is still sinful and wants to say no. And even now, He is still gracious in allowing my heart to be okay with a new home.

So now, I have a new home to make new memories in and be convicted in new ways and for Him to glorified through all of it. But it is not the building that makes it my home, its the souls those people and the Lord in our midst despite of us.

My chapter at the Village is closed, for right now any ways, but God is still God. And regardless of my day, He still reigns.

May you find comfort in Him. Joy in His presence. And love in His mercy.

Madi Mae