“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15

Sunday September 1, 2024.

So here we are, just nine months into our year-long commitment at Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church in Tarboro. Or, three-quarters of the way through.

Rebekah is still working hard, of course, to move this church forward in its process of finding the next permanent leader, while preaching her heart out and loving the congregation with all she has. At the same time we are planting ourselves and the next chapter of our lives right here in the historic downtown.

We will be off on all kinds of adventures as kind-of-retired people, but this community will be our home port and Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church our anchor.

To that end Rebekah and I are doubling down in our efforts to vacate our Wake Forest home of eleven years. No, this is not an announcement that Maul-Hall is on the market quite yet, but we are getting closer by the day.

This latest visit took us – in my estimation – over the proverbial hump and into “we’re actually making progress” territory! Two more vehicles full with stuff for Tarboro, two more big loads to Goodwill, and a solid sense that we might just pull this off in September!

We had the Wake Forest house washed, gutters and roof cleared, and more (a few short hours before severe thunderstorms made a real mess!). So things are absolutely moving in the right direction. Then, during the next week, a handyman will be fixing a bunch of items around the house.

All this is to say that we are both as unsettled as it is possible to be and at the same time as confident as we can be that we are on the right path.

There is a lot to be said for understanding the workings of the hand of providence and knowing the love and care of a God we can both trust and rest in.

Question: Where are we anchored? Without one we tend to lose our way, and being adrift is not a great idea – especially for our children.

Talking of the right path…

Meanwhile, it is Sunday morning and Rebekah and I will be in church, celebrating the Lord’s Supper with our friends, enjoying the love that permeates this community, glad to be a part of this household of faith.

Listen, friends, this is really important. I do not know of any better way to live than from the context of a church family. This is the quality of community we were created for and it answers the most fundamental challenges of day to day life.

Simply put, we need each other. Life is not always easy and this is why Jesus came as God’s invitation to return home.

Fact is without community – Christ centered community – we are going to stumble badly. We stumble anyway, but God gives us the Body of Christ to hold us up. Not only that, but stranded without a family of faith our children are going to struggle more they need to – as are we; we simple cannot do this alone.

So come home already, come home in every possible way – DEREK