Ruined & overwhelmed

Just got back from Atlanta last night and feel I have crammed so much energy, passion, laughter, information, and thoughts to wrestle with in those four days that it seems more like four weeks. It was an incredible time and I will probably be unpacking those thoughts here for quite awhile that relate to the ideas sparked during those few days. Have to say that I continue to learn what community looks like and have been surrounded by that these last couple of weeks. I don't think it was an accident that the theme for Catalyst this year happened to be "Together" either. I think I now have a better picture of what the community talked about in Acts looks like after the last several days. Amazing, but I will get to that in a latter post I am sure.

On the Thursday (the first day of the conference), if I had to describe how I felt in one word it would be ruined. I think God had some things he wanted me to hear and things he wants me to do, but first he had to ruin me. Sound a little strange? Here is what I mean by ruined. I needed a lot of things taken out of the picture. I needed to get back to the place of where it was just me and God. Sometimes before a new building can be built you have to raze the old building. That is what I felt like. I needed to be stretched and ruined (which Craig Groeschel spoke about at the end of the that day) before He could start building me up. That is where the overwhelmed comes in. The next day was overwhelming in the love that I felt. From God, from friends and family, and even from people I didn't really know before this trip. It was an awesome day capped by one of those thin place moments. That evening I had the opportunity to worship, pray, cry and laugh with an amazing group of people. Some of them where family (also friends), some where my closest friends, and some where people I had meet two days before. Overwhelmed by the fact that only through God could this have happened. I have so many thoughts to sort through, ideas to make happen, and people to love that I am not even sure where I begin, but that is okay. I know God will figure that part out, I just need to be ready to act of it. Are you ready to be ruined by God and overwhelmed by His love?