I Must Say Goodbye, part 2
At the beginning of the week, I started my goodbye to Highpoint. I pray that for many others who have been hurt and stuck in their grieving process that this may help you heal any remaining places. Almost five years later, I am pretty tired of the topic. Still, at the same time, I continue to meet people who have struggled first with the pain of Highpoint’s crisis and then the pandemic, leaving people needing closure and healing to reignite their faith in God and His family.
I pick up with the third thing I learned….
Love is the only way through
Even when you are hurt, and the last thing you want to do is risk loving again, it is what heals. We were created in God’s image, and He has a holy love…. meaning it is love that is set apart, radically different, and unique. His love never fails. So when the world is spinning, and you are convinced people will let you down, He won’t.
If you have been hurt, you need love, and you need to give love away. (Forgiveness is a big part, so check out what Chris did on forgiveness if you need help with this step) The answer is not to refuse love. Likewise, withholding love is not the solution.
Even if it is just a few people or the Lord holding you through the night, see that He is sustaining you and sending points of love to you as a balm. And then, when you are a little stronger, you start loving those God has near you. We heal as we share God’s love with others. It never is unrewarded… whether the person reciprocates love or not, God sees your expressions of love and blesses them.
The church being a family is essential.
Everything about God’s design is in the context of relationships. God has a son. He created the trinity – a place of family, even in the Godhead. He creates marriage to point people to our marriage with Him. We are His sons and daughters, and He gives us biological and spiritual sons and daughters. He created the church as our spiritual family.
Many churches reflect dysfunctional families. And the enemy works hard to get us to believe lies about God, His family, and us. A few people chose to shift from being a family to being an organization, and instead of holding up each others’ arms, a different path was taken. Maybe in your journey, you have seen a few people in a church or biological family not love as family should.
The answer is not for us to give up on family… biological or spiritual. What is the result of giving up on the family? The church?
Look around. With universities becoming the new plumb line as churches have lost their influence, we are living out what a decline in being family has done for generations… first in the family unit and now in the church family. We can’t give up on God’s design. As humans, we take His perfect design and make it imperfect, but He still chooses to work through His bride and through us. That will never change.
I won’t let the enemy steal 17 years of God proving His faithfulness, even if the enemy attacked the last six months.
As I say goodbye to Highpoint, it is with love for all that God did and for everyone who ever called themselves a Highpointer. The salvations were real; the life change was real; the impact we had to move the needle in Memphis was real. My children came to faith there with thousands of other children and adults. Many people who had given up on God gave Him one more try, and He has changed countless people’s paths, for which I am eternally grateful.
I have never lost a child, and I cannot imagine the pain, but I know enough to know that God does not intend for us to forever live in the pain of loss. We must remember the beauty and heal from the pain, so we can say hello to the new things that He will birth… even from ashes.
Farewell Highpoint.
Thank you, God, for Your faithfulness and that it never ends.
I pray the Lord will give you the grace to say goodbye to anything in your past that needs closure so you are available for what He intends to birth.