Installation Service

I'm getting ready for the installation service this weekend and, not surprisingly, I've been thinking a lot about it. I don't really have anything to do other than be installed, but I still feel like I need to get ready. Here's some of what I've been pondering along the way:

• I've always heard of and referred to God's sense of humor, but I've never felt quite so sure he was getting a good belly laugh because of me as I do now. "Come to St. Louis," I thought, "and do some school and ride off into the sunset on my shiny red scooter." Didn't quite work out that way.
• I'm surprised at how nice it is to think about settling down somewhere and digging in for the long haul. Some day I'll know how to say "Interstate Farty Far" and sound like a local. I'll say things like, "I remember when 141 stopped at Olive, before it went through to Page." My son will grow up loving the Cardinals and maybe even the Rams (he will, however, be a Redwings fan if I have anything to say about it).
• There are so many people who have invested so much in me, I feel incredibly grateful and want to honor their sacrifices.
• My only hope at West County Assembly of God is what my only hope would have been anywhere else God might have called me--to trust Him to do what I cannot do on my own, to trust Him to move beyond my faults and failures and build His church in spite me.
  

Here we go...