Providence and Creative Titles

The other day I was driving back from a dear friends funeral in Missouri and decided to listen to a Matt Chandler sermon on my iphone. I typically never travel alone but made an exception for this trip so that I could have some time to think, pray, and listen. I always have podcasts ready on my phone. I have found that I need time each week to be inspired by others and so I download messages from Steven Furtick, Perry Noble, Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, and others. I want to be inspired, I want to grow, I want to be stretched, so I listen.

The funeral of my dear friend was hard on me – I’ll write more about that soon. I also had just been to the funeral of my grandmother the week before. Death, dying, pain, suffering, heaven, hell – were all topics on my brain. Sometimes the difficulties in life cause us to re-examine the hard truths we often avoid in life.

I hadn’t listened to Matt Chandler in a while. His ministry has been blessed and he is an incredible teacher/pastor. And, his personal story of facing cancer over the past year or so is flat out amazing. The guy has guts, loves Christ and lives out his faith. That’s the kind of traits I desperately want in my own life.

As I scanned through Matt’s sermon titles – I noticed a 3 part series called “Transitions.” I thought to myself, I’m in a transition period – in my 40’s, our first child is going into college, we just moved to a new community south of Nashville, I’m only 1 year into a new job, my dad was just diagnosed with cancer, and I had just been to the funeral of one of my mentors.

Had I known what Matt’s “Transition” series was really about – I probably wouldn’t have listened. It wasn’t the kind of transition I had in mind. It was solid biblical truth hitting me straight where my heart was torn open. What was it about? Well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

I'm thankful for Providence and God leading me to these messages. I'm also thankful for the creativity at The Village Church (Matt's church). Sometimes creative titles really do make a difference. I highly recommend this powerful 3 part series. One thing for sure, this is one transition no one will avoid.