A Year Ago Today

This Saturday morning, I made sure I got my 8 hrs of sleep, then got up, checked my email, got a bowl of cereal, texted my friend who is letting me stay at her place to say thank you, packed up and headed out. I had to get OUT! It has been such a flurry of activity over the past several weeks, I just had to get away, by myself, just me and the Creator of the universe. Had to get away from people. Had to get away from my crazy, got-to-go 100 mph self. So I headed out to Kiesel Park…this great place in Auburn. Ever find a place that is sooo wonderful, you wish you’d discovered it earlier..but then you’re happy you didn’t because you most certainly would’ve spent WAY too much time there? Yeah, that’s Kiesel Park.

So I grabbed my backpack full of a towel, flip flops, my Bible, journal, really cool pen bag Aubrey gave me, and my current devotional and headed out to find a spot on a bench under a tree. I’m so A-D-D sometimes, which is part of the reason why I journal…makes me focus. I was thankful for it today as there was a wedding reception in the pavilion about 200 yards away. As I finally was still and alone, an eerie loneliness swept over me. I started digesting what this month has looked like…interviewing, but still waiting, feeling a bit like a pinball, staying with friends and at camps while my stuff is in storage, enjoying the Auburn people when I’m here, but knowing I’ll be moving… but when and where and will there be community there, and thinking about taking girls to Black mountain next week…


WAIT! Black Mountain…then my mind started rushing back to a year ago this week. A year ago, I arrived super early to Black Mountain to work FCA Girls’ camp there as the Athletic Director. I sat down with God on the front porch of the little cabin we were staying in that night and said, “I know this week it’s supposed to be all about giving my life away to these girls. And I will. I’ve gotta leave the at-home things at home…so I leave the fact that I don’t have a job and still do have a mortgage payment in your hands. Just show me what you have for me to do this week”. That night, I met a bunch of Huddle Leaders and knew God wanted me to invest in a couple, so I got up at 6am the next morning to run with two of them He was pointing out. Little did I know that that was the beginning of two beautiful friendships of the best accountability I have ever had… that He would have me open my mouth in vulnerability about the story He’s given me for other peoples’ benefit…that I would see the fruit of that. I had no clue that on the last night of camp I would be sitting on the front porch of Lee Hall with Wes Yeary explaining the FCA chaplain training program at Auburn to me while I was wiping the drool off my face. God set soooo many things into motion this week one year ago. It blows my mind! And next week I get to sit with one of Auburn’s former athletes who has become a dear friend on that same front porch and revel in all He’s done in this past year! Kinda made my day.