As I arose yesterday morning, I realized that I was about to eagerly embark on a new CHALLENGE in my life for the first time in our relationship that I have stubbornly been uneasy about: 'THE BLENDING OF TWO LIVES'.
I got in the car with Martel and off we were headed together to his church: 'Life Changing Ministries' which my heart started to realized as we pulled into the driveway.....'Juzanne, this will soon be your future church home'.
If you are wondering what is the backdrop of this post, well here it goes. Martel and I have known each other as beautiful friends since 2007. From the moment we met each other, our lives have always been on the opposite spectrum of one another. We were both young in the faith of Jesus Christ when we first met, but there were even more distinct differences about one another that intrigued us to continue in our pursuit of a growing friendship. When you look at my life, I have always been serving in ministry since the moment that I surrendered my life to Christ and continuing my schooling at the University of Memphis. On the other hand, Martel also attended University of Memphis, been an absolute hard worker with a major on point business savvy, and his service in ministry looked different from mines, in that, he had to be more strategic when sharing the Gospel with coworkers and patients, whereas I was easily thrown into open situations and opportunities to share the Gospel. And on top of everything, we both attended different churches, had different dynamics of friends, and etc. Ultimately, we are simply just plain opposite, but we deeply love one another so I know that in spite of being opposite it has worked for us lol.
Anyway, with so many differences and a whole lot of love to fill those differences, there is always a challenge that we must face together and that is the blending of one another's lives. No one knows this challenge more than Martel and I. We have had to establish so many 'collaborations' and not 'compromises' which I will explain later in order for our relationship to remain in full gear. From the food that we choose to the television shows that we watch and to the convictions that we both have spiritually, everything has become a 'melting pot' for us. The one door that seemed to be the hardest challenge above all for us is the topic of 'Church'. If you asked us two years ago, we would tell you that there was nothing in heaven or on Earth that could make us yield to discussing this topic, so naturally we avoided it until the elephant got too big for us to avoid. Now that we are engaged, the elephant is not only in the room, but it is sitting on our couch and eating our chips asking us, 'So what yall gone do? Huh?'.
A month ago, I met with my amazing discipler, Heather again at her new home and she called me up to the challenge that I feared the most: I CHALLENGE YOU TO ATTEND MARTEL'S CHURCH FOR A WHOLE MONTH. I was like screaming internally, 'What! Heather whose side are you on????' I thought about what she said for a moment and my whole life at Fellowship Memphis flashed before my eyes: the bonds I shared with so many people, the sound doctrine that would sting me to conviction every Sunday, the opportunities to service the church, and tons of growth that has helped a great deal to make me the woman of God that I am today. And then I realized that I would share with her that when Martel and I get married, I would attend his church, but stubbornly on the inside, I was just talking the talk, but Heather challenged me to walk the walk. Later on in our conversation, I realized how thankful I am to Heather because no one ever challenged me to stand up to my new role, as a submissive leader, by standing behind my future husband and leaving to cleave to our new established life together. Whew! it makes me want to shout and dance dance dance just to think about how much more the Lord is building into me to be a woman and wife of noble character.
Genesis 2:24 New King James Version (NKJV)
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Proverbs 31:10-12 New International Version (NIV)
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
So, back to the beginning of my post. We parked in the parking lot and we started to walk in and the atmosphere was just oozing with the call for the Lord to come and be present in this place. It was such a sweet aroma to be in Life Changing Ministries just in moments of preparing to take a seat. I was greeted by a few women already just by walking in and hugged and encouraged by Pastor Moore's wife, Pamela Moore and she said happily, 'Come on in and get excited about your new home'. Her statement placed me in an automatic comfort zone and I knew as I was following Martel to a seat, my life is truly about to change. Praise and worship began and the singers shouted their voices to the heavens and I could feel the presence of the Lord in that place. The music continued to surround the church and the women sang harder and longer and motioned the audience to let our hearts go out to the Lord freely. Then, out the corner of my eye I noticed that the ushers were passing out pieces of palm trees to as many that they could in the crowd and then I received one. The church began to put on a beautiful display of Palm Sunday to not only celebrate the joyous day when Jesus made his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, as we waved our very own palms, but we celebrated the joyous day that we all remembered when the Lord Jesus came into our hearts and rid us from our wretched sin and brokenness. I could not stop crying because I remembered how the Lord sought me out and how miraculous it is for me to still be praying to Him because He has kept His word by not leaving me because HE IS NOT DEAD! Matthew 28: 20 (NKJV) and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
The message that Pastor Moore gave was amazing, in that, he stated how we must not forget the 'IN THE BEGINNING GOD' because He is the very reason that we celebrate the Risen Savior Jesus Christ. Admirably, I loved whenever Martel would go to the stage to proclaim loudly and boldly the scriptures from the Almighty Yahweh, and I was thinking internally, 'Now that is my Godly leader' as I smiled softly. One of the parts that I enjoyed the most about attending Life Changing was that when the secretary arose to state the order of service and announcements in which there is moment where the visitors are asked to make themselves known and because Life Changing is a small congregation, everyone knew that I was the only visitor lol. So that I would not be disrespectful, I was about to stand and state the church that attend which is Fellowship Memphis, but Pastor Moore shouted, 'Oh no we don't have any visitors we are all members here, that is sister Johnson sitting over there!' Wow!!! is all that I could shout in my heart, what a way for them to shower me with love on the first day of my challenge from Heather.
So, ladies and gentleman there you have it, my challenge to attend Martel's church didn't go bad at all. In fact, I cannot wait to attend next Sunday! See what I learned is that I will be intimately 'collaborating' with Martel when we start to attend Life Changing Ministries together because it is ultimately not about us and our preferences, but it is always all about magnifying the Lord with every area in our lives especially with the blending of one another's life. A compromise is where one party loses something at the expense of the other party, but a collaboration is where both parties do not lose anything but instead when they come together with their ideals, they come up with something 'even better' which will woven them together even stronger. So thank you Jesus for helping me to pursue a collaboration with Martel to honor you with our marriage soon. I desire to look upon submission as a GIFT Lord and not as a crutch to hinder me from the joys of marriage because that is not what You designed it for, only sin has distorted the proper view of submission. Give me Your eyes Lord to be my guide and I need Your voice to continue to be louder than mines. Thank You Lord for making sure that we are not blending our lives together alone and that You are already helping us along the way. -Amen
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