I don't know about you all but, Dean's most recent sermon series, "Tebowing" definitely gave me the good smack in the face I'd been needing. Having been a Christian for many years, I sometimes fall into the mindset that I have this Christian life thing on lock. But, somehow God always brings me back to reality and teaches me He is in control.

Matthew's sermon on surrender hit home for me the most. For those of you who don't know me, it is likely because my family is fairly new to City Church. It is by God's grace, His will, and His perfect timing that He brought us to this amazing church.

About a year ago, my husband, Michael,  and I began to realize that his time as the director of Christian Campus Fellowship at FSU was likely drawing to a close. We felt God pulling us out of campus ministry and into some sort of local church ministry. By the time we announced to our students that we'd be leaving we still had no idea where we'd be going. We spent the Fall and early Spring visiting churches and seminaries all over the country in search of our next steps as a family.

It wasn't until Matthew and Dean as personal friends of ours invited us to attend a conference with many of the City Church leaders in early March, that God finally revealed His will to us. You can imagine that by March (our job at CCF ended in April) we were pretty nervous about where we were going and how we'd pay our bills. You could even say we were beginning to lose faith. As a "planner," I tend to want to know all the details of my life before I necessarily need to.

During a session at that conference, Perry Noble said, "Let go of your plans so you can grab a hold of God's promise." What a great reminder to me that, although I may not want to, when I do surrender my plans and my wants to God, He always has something better planned for me. At the time, while we felt the pull and the desire to be a part of Dean's vision for our city and what God was doing at City Church, we hadn't the slightest clue what that might look like. But that message from Perry Noble that day at Newspring really reminded us that all God requires of us is a surrendered heart, and He will take care of the rest. Since that day and as both my husband and I have been invited to join the staff at City Church, I have held tight to this verse, John 11:40, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? I pray we would all trust His word and not our worry.