Riding High

I spent last weekend in Cleveland attending the SCF annual conference. This is an incredible time filled with much laughter and tears. Frankly, it's exhausting because it's hard to do that much talking to people you only see once a year and also to cry so much.

The crying happens because email addresses turn into people. It really hit me when I listened to the testimony of a woman who lost 85 pounds after taking The Lord's Table. She was clearly in heavy bondage to food and now looks great. Freedom is awesome.

I also felt myself getting pretty teary-eyed when I heard the testimony of a man who has been through a lot. He recently had a quintuple bypass and is doing OK after it. He also lost his job just before that. Previously he told his gay lover that he would not leave his wife and his lover outed him to his wife with the logic of, "If I can't have him, she can't either." His wife graciously stood by him. The part that was amazing was that he planned his suicide, but tried out one of our courses first and it saved his life.

Stuff like this makes it all seem so real. I read the Bible and see that the wages of sin is death. I know what my life was like when I lived in bondage to sin. It wasn't pretty. Sometimes I forget to be properly grateful for my freedom. Frankly, every time I look at my daughter I should be reminded of God's goodness.

I was just flying on Saturday after the conference ended. But by today the mountaintop experience has faded and I'm back to business as usual. I know that we can't stay on the mountaintop all the time. I don't think I could handle it physically or emotionally. But it was a fun ride. And it certainly gives me a greater hunger for God so that I can have more intimate experiences with His grace.