As we start this new week, may we remember that church is not somewhere we go, church is something that we are. We are the church. We are the Body of Christ. We are the hands and feet of Jesus to a broken and hurting world.

Be the church to those around you. Be the hands and feet of Jesus to those you cross paths with this week. When people frustrate you throughout the week, remember that you have no idea the things they are wrestling with in their lives right now.

Choose to love. Choose to serve. Choose to surrender and allow God's light to shine through you.

Be the church and may God bless you abundantly as you do.

All of us want to know the end of the story... how things are going to turn out. It's what keeps us turning page after page in a great novel. It's what keeps us glued to the screen during our favorite movies and TV shows.

Life isn't much different. On the journey of life, we all want to know where our story is going to end up... how things are going to turn out. And it seems we spend a great deal of time, trying to write our own stories and secure the destiny we long for. The problem is, the Bible seems to suggest that we were not intended to be the authors of our own stories... God, our Creator, is intended to be the author. He created us with a purpose and longs to live in relationship with us and to guide us toward the fulfillment of that purpose.

Ultimately to live the story we were meant to tell, our responsibility is to live in communion with God, and to live in daily, surrendered obedience to Him.... allowing Him to guide and direct the decisions we make, that ultimately lead us to the story we will tell with our lives.

The struggle is, only God knows the end of the story. Only God knows how each decision we make will impact the story we end up telling. As much as we want to control and write our own destiny, we can't see exactly how each decision will impact our lives. Making decisions would be easy if we knew how each decision we make would impact our story. But it also would remove the necessity of our dependance on God. If I knew how each decision was going to impact my story, I wouldn't need Him to guide me and direct me in the daily decisions I make.

Instead, God invites us into an intimate relationship with Him and a journey of faith. Even though we can't see the end of the story... even though we don't know exactly how it all turns out, we live with a sense of hope and assurance, not in the outcome or the destination, but in the One who is leading us toward the destination... that He is for us and not against us; that He is working all things for our good; that He only wants what is best for us, and He will lead us exactly where we need to be.

Even though you don't know what tomorrow holds, heed to the encouragement of the author of the book of Hebrews and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), and allow Him to guide and direct the decisions you make. And be certain that as you do, a beautiful story is unfolding that is exactly as it was meant to be.

Hebrews 12:2

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...