Since Becca and I got married we have moved eight times. This is a lot since before we got married I hadn’t moved since I was 5 years old, not including college and seminary. Most of our eight moves occurred before we had children, but Trey, our oldest, moving to Arizona makes it his 3rd move in 6 years. With our last four moves we changed our home address but everything else stayed the same…same phone number, same doctors, same schools, same friends, same restaurants and same church. If we had a late meeting we knew our dinner options. If one of our kids got hurt we knew where to take them. So when God called us to Pinnacle it was the first time in 9 years that everything around us changed. We could no longer take for granted the things we had for so many years.
As I wonder where to find a good dentist, or doctor for our children. As we drive around trying to find the best Mexican restaurant and find a pizza place that delivers every day is a new adventure. As I reflect back on my first week at Pinnacle I wonder how many people find themselves comfortable with their faith? How many people have become so comfortable with their faith and their routine of “church” that we start taking it for granted and we stop seeking new faith adventures? We find ourselves sitting in the same pew, talking to the same people, doing (or not doing) the same things we have always done. Why, because it is comfortable.
But being a Christian isn’t always about comfort; it is about loving and being loved. Despite leaving everything we had known, when we got to Pinnacle there was something very familiar waiting for us here…Love. We have been showed love by those who helped us purchase our house, to those who endured longer than normal meetings to educate me and to answer my question. I felt love from those children who participated in the Children’s Sabbath to the Jr. and Sr. High Youth at our first meeting together. I have especially felt love by those who have checked in me about how my children are transitioning to life in Arizona. In everything I have done this week I felt God’s love from God’s people here at Pinnacle.
I know that the longer that I am here the more comfortable with things I will get. I will find a doctor and the best place to eat Mexican food. The pizza places I currently have on speed dial from California, will switch over to Barros. My hope is that despite being comfortable with our surroundings, we will never get to comfortable with our faith. That Pinnacle will never forget how important it is to love and be loved, and not just those around us but those beyond the entrance of Pima or Happy Valley. So thank you for the love that you have shown me during my first week here at Pinnacle and I look forward to being apart of this church as we share that love with the rest of the world.
In Christ,
FRANK
