Spring!

My poor little bloglet.

I've just brought it to life, and already I've had to neglect it! Not by choice, mind you. The end of this semester is approaching a little too quickly, and I'm starting to feel the heat. My teachers are holding a magnifying glass up to the sun, if you will, and I'm just a pitiful ant at the mercy of their good will and fast-approaching deadlines.

Perhaps I'm over-exaggerating, you say. Perhaps (and only perhaps) you're right. Still, though, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

I'm part of an absolutely awesome church here in Colorado called Flatirons. We used to meet in an old feed store, but we got just a little too big for it. And by that, I mean that we were holding six services on a weekend (2 Saturday, 4 Sunday) with a total of between 12,000 and 14,000 attendees showing up during those services. Several months ago, then, our church bought an old Albertson's and WalMart and started to remodel. Thus our new building, fondly dubbed "Walbertson's" by the masses, was born. This weekend was the first one in this new place, and it was phenomenal. A little chaotic, a little stressful... but simply phenomenal.

Flatirons isn't your typical church.

•  Example #1: We have a tattoo wall prominently displayed in our lobby. 

• Example #2: You can hear (and feel) the woofers in our new sound system when you're three blocks away. 
• (My thought process the first time I heard it: "Who's stupid enough to have the bass in their car turned up that loud?" ...five minutes later... "Oh. That's my church.")

The thing that I love most about it, though, is that the new building really isn't about just having a cool new building. It's about providing a place for people to come and see what God is doing in this place, a place to bump into Jesus. It's a place that people who are following Jesus can OUT from and build community within. It's not about us. It's not about the awesome sound system. It's about making Jesus famous and carrying His name, which is precisely what the church (not just Flatirons, but the church as a whole) is supposed to be about. LOVE IT.

Everything with Flatirons, then, has definitely been a huge thing in my life over the last few weeks! I love that that is all happening at the same time that spring is really beginning to show itself: out with the old, in with the new! I know that it's "technically" been spring for a while now, but spring never seems to really be here until trees are budding, flowers are peeking their faces shyly into the dewy air, and the infinite blades of grass begin to blush their jewel-toned color once again.

Spring sneaked up on me this year. Some years, it seems to unfold itself slowly, like a slumbering giant reawakening, gently stretching itself out against the pale pastel world. This year, though, the weather was, in Colorado fashion, entirely bipolar. Who knew whether any given day would be 80 degrees or 20? A few days ago, though, we had a little day-long snowstorm... and that set everything into motion. As soon as the white vanished from the ground, everything began easing into its chlorophyllic complexion.

As beautiful and fresh as the new growth is, though, I can't help but see (and feel, to some extent) the melancholy of the situation. On a day like today, the sky is gray and overcast, and the atmosphere feels almost heavy. Still, though, the new buds and blooms are gorgeous -- almost more so than they would be if the surrounding world were bright and cheery. They're still in transition, and so is this Colorado springtime, but that transition is the very thing that makes today simply stunning.

Perhaps I'm overly metaphorical, but I can't help but look at nature and at the beautiful community I'm part of and think, "That's me." There are times -- sometimes hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks -- that I feel heavy, oppressed, stressed, and of little consequence... but as long as I'm running after Jesus, I am radiating his glory, often when I least feel like it or expect it. I don't understand any part of that, but I know that it's true, and I know that I feel so incredibly, indescribably loved when I get a glimpse of that.

I keep learning is that change is beautiful, even if it's painful or heavy at times. Change is essential to becoming the person I want to be -- the person that Jesus created me to be.

That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the moment. On the contrary: I'm in transition, and the transition is exactly what is so stunning. I can't always see that from my perspective, but why do I need to when I can stare at the Creator of beauty, and the one who's making me bloom?