Celebrate!

There is something to be said for a good celebration. Far too often good things are planned and accomplished, but time is not always given to pause and to offer praise for hard work and accomplishment and to remember our Maker that makes all things possible.

In Scripture there are a lot of celebrations. Gods' people were trained by God to remember the good things that He brought and allowed in their lives. Most of the calendar year of the Hebrew people revolved around gathering to give thanks to God and remembering the blessings they'd been given.

This past week was a week of celebrations for me. On Sunday the family of Living Hope took time after church to eat together and celebrate the construction journey we'd been on over the past seven years. It was an open invitation to all who wanted to come. It was fun to be with those that persevered and pushed and prayed and did all that they could to get us to the point where we are today as a family of faith. We now have the Connection Center - a one of a kind recreational and fellowship center in our region. We also have a state of the art Student Center, more functional and spacious children's areas, renovated adult discipleship space, and plenty of parking.

God has been so good to Living Hope and on Sunday we celebrated that as a family of faith and on Wednesday we invited the city to come and celebrate with us. It was encouraging to have representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, from the city, state, and national government, and many local pastors in attendance. I would try and name them, but I might forget someone. It was a special day for me personally to have so many dear friends from the community come over to help us give God praise for what He has done.

And yesterday, I was in Franklin, Ky with my dear brother Dr. Bill Daniel. He recently left Bowling Green to start his own private surgical practice there in Franklin. They are blessed to have him there. We are blessed to still have him so close. I know that he has patients from all over South Central Kentucky and North Tennessee that go to see him. I know there is no one I trust more than Dr. Bill. He is a man of God and a great surgeon.

I was down there yesterday to celebrate with him the opening of his practice. He's been up and going since January, but it was nice for him to pause and praise God for His provision.

Life is short and many times hard. It is good to take time to give God thanks and to celebrate His provisions.