I Finally Find You And I Collide

I am often hesitant to post about how much I love Mariners Church.

Not because of my lack of love for my church, but for some reason, I have this strange feeling that people will somehow misconstrue my words to mean that I love Mariners and dislike Saddleback.

Which is absolutely untrue.

I love, love working at Mariners. I love that my co-workers finally know me well enough to make jokes about my affinity for boys with prior drug addictions or my inability to jump. I love that one of the executive staff members stopped me this afternoon to ask me if I knew the impact I was making, not only on our students, but on our staff as a whole. {I do not deserve to have found such favor so rapidly...it's clearly Jesus at work here.}

I still love, love Saddleback, too. I love that a majority of the Student Ministries team members have been my friends for over ten years. I love the volume and ease of laughter that arises in events, meetings, lunches. I worked there for around 10 years {in volunteer, intern and paid positions}, this list could continue for days.

This afternoon, at Catalyst Day 2, I watched my worlds collide:

I sat in the Mariners Worship Center, between Zack {from Saddleback} and Tim {from Mariners} listening to Kay Warren share about God's heart for the vulnerable children of the world...I stood behind Rick {Saddleback} and next to Matt {Mariners} as they listened to and enjoyed Wes Stafford's explanation of Jesus' heart for the children of the world.

My heart was so happy to have my two places merge.

My brain would not let this feeling go...the thought of loving two churches so much...feeling at home in both...being loved and loving others in both.

God is so good.