Two, Two, One

I apologize for the long delay since last writing. However, I am in the middle of a major life transition and I had to make sure that certain people knew what was going on before writing anything here. This transition and the issues leading up to it have been the topics on my mind the past several months. I wasn’t sure that I could write anything without reflecting on these issues or the transition. Now all decisions have been made and all who need to be personally informed have been notified.

There were two dinners this past week that summed up the past several months. Both of these dinners had its own very different meaning. However, both pointed to the transition Amy and I are going through.

The first dinner was Thursday night. Amy and I invited the Wendel family from SouthPoint Church (the lead pastor’s family where we have been worshipping since the beginning of April) over for dinner. We had a great time. We sat around the kitchen table and talked well past 9pm. The kids played with the dog and watch cartoons on TV. I imagine that we could have talked several more hours had they not needed to go put kids in bed. Amy and I are excited about what God is doing through SouthPoint and the ways that he is already connecting us to that body through service and leadership.

The second dinner was Saturday night. All of the Memphis Urban Ministry staff had been invited over to one of my co-workers house’s for dinner. However, this dinner had a very different feel for Amy and me. Part of what was done that night was to honor Amy and me for our years of service with MUM (since 2001). We were given gifts and prayed over. I left that night knowing an era of my life was drawing to a close.

All of the issues that have led to this are too great to put into this post right now. I will summarize them all by saying the longer I stayed the more I felt life being sucked out of me. Although not diagnosed by a mental health professional, I felt that I was slipping into a slight depression. I saw how I was using food as a coping mechanism (I have put back on 45 lbs. of the 60 lbs. that I lost several years ago). The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. I was definitely practicing a form of insanity. I “woke up” and realized how unhappy I was and how little life I had. I knew that if I didn’t do something different things would just get worse.

I am not going to work for SouthPoint Church. That means that I am looking for a new job. I am now doing well with all of this. It has been a long time coming and I believe that it is for the best. Being completely honest, I probably should have made this move when I moved from Wonder City to the main MUM office in the spring of last year. However, fear of the unknown is a powerful motivator and hindsight is always 20/20. There is still some fear. I am still working for MUM, but a final day of July 31 has been set (unless I am able to find a new job before then). I have a couple of leads that I am working. Pastor Craig said yesterday that God loves surprises, but he often waits until it is a day late (according to our timing) so that we know it is him. I sure hope God does wait until after July 31 to provide a new job and source of income. However, one thing I do know is that he has always taken care of us in the past and he will do so in the future as well.

Two dinners, two different meanings, one major life transition. Praise God that he is in control.


On a different note – this is going to be my official last post to this blog. I set this up as a place to reflect on what God is doing in my life and ministry. Part of that was to keep financial supporters updated on what was going on in my ministry. Another part of it was for this to be like an open diary. I really don’t want or need that anymore. If I decided to continue blogging, I need to create something different. For me that means I need to start from scratch. I will check back here for about a week to read any comments you may want to leave.

So to use an old radio format, “This is Mack on Reflections Blog signing off…”