Tonight's the night

So here it is, open house day. It kind of feels like getting ready for a wedding. People to contact, plans to be made, food to get ready, details, details, details. But at least at my wedding, I knew what was coming. Most importantly, I knew who I was getting married to. So I was actually very relaxed at the ceremony: I got to stand there and make my vow. It was my friends who had to play all of the difficult music I’d written for them!

Of course, marriage is an adventure and the wedding ceremony doesn’t really predict what married life will be like.

But tonight, as people come to the open house, we don’t even know who all is getting on this ride. People will be checking out this opportunity and seeing if it’s for them. The future lays open before us, full of promise—but full of the unknown as well.

In my daughter Carolyn’s favorite movie, The Sound of Music, Maria worries about becoming the governess for seven children (far more daunting than planting a church, no doubt!). She finds her resolve and sings, “I have confidence in confidence alone, besides which you see I have confidence in me!”

My confidence isn’t in personal resolve, in strategies, in all of my great ideas, or in “confidence alone”. It’s in God. It’s in the fact that this is his mission, his church, his work here in Helena.

So tonight belongs to God. Let’s see what he has planned.