The day of small things

Last night, I watched a little bit of IHOP's 10 year Anniversary Celebrations. It's so neat that they can celebrate 10 years of hard work, graced and enabled by God, of 24/7 prayer and worship. That is a huge accomplishment and one worth celebrating!

As one who is a part of a HOP another place on the globe, I celebrate with them because it feels like giving your big brother or big sister a high five on a job well done! When I first went to IHOP I longed to relocate because nothing like it was happening in my own city. I am so thankful that over the last few years, I don't get that feeling when I enter or leave Kansas City anymore. To me, Kansas City is a well of refreshment. I can take a break from pioneering our smaller HOP and just sit back and soak in the midst of like-minded people doing the same thing in another area of the world. I feel like IHOP is a big brother, different in many ways but with the same genetics.

Today, I am thankful for our little HOP. I am thankful that we are small and nobody knows us. I am so thankful we're not on tv, webstreamed or famous. I'm thankful that anybody and everybody can participate. Today, I'm thankful for hiddeness because I know it won't be this way forever and I don't know how long this smaller season will last. Back in the trailer days, IHOP had small beginnings too and that sure didn't last forever!

I know that life won't look like it does now, forever. Our HOP won't always be in a small building in the middle of the city, housed on a 1 day a week by a generous pastor. We won't always have prayer meetings in homes on a regular basis. Shane won't always work from home, therefore, we won't always have both the blessings and struggles that working from home brings. We won't always know most faces in our midst on a more personal basis. We won't always get to attend most meetings.

Shane and I won't always be in our 20s. We won't always have the time, space and freedom we do now in the same way. We won't always be without children and we probably won't always be in an apartment.

Life as we know it is going to change over the years in a personal and corporate way. Things won't always be the same for our little HOP. I generally comfort myself in the hard times with this truth, but it is also a little sad. So often I want to leave the small beginnings behind and yet how special they have been.

Zechariah 4:10 "For who has despised the day of small things?".

I want to cherish our small beginnings instead of despise the annoyances and frustrations that accompany them. There are so many very painful and frustrating parts to "building a ship while at sea", but there are so many treasures (even when I can't think of them). They may not be obvious but they are probably internal and eternal in nature.

I want to be thankful for the present. Thankful for the small things. I want to appropriately desire the things to come and yet love the present with a thankful heart.

September 20, 2009 will never take place again, along with any other day. I want to live it out well, without regrets, not wanting to stay in today forever but not always longing to get out of it as quickly as possible either.

Thank-you Lord for hot Sundays with no air-conditioning. We'll love retelling the story in 10 years. Thank-you Lord for the sound system. We'll have MANY stories in 5 years. Thank-you Lord for limiting our time and resources according to what you know we can handle. Thank-you Lord for leading and guiding us so well. Thank-you Lord for giving us all we need step by step. Thank-you for Your perfect leadership and your great wisdom in building this HOP. Thank-you for filling us time and time again with your presence.

Cheers to the days of small beginnings!