Ernest Smith

In the latest post, I revealed the values that Sara and I were looking for in a city to plant a church.  Once we identified the 5 values we wanted in a city, we made a very short list of cities that matched those values in the US.

We then placed Denver on the top of our list, simply because of my love for the Broncos, and we placed Miami number two on the list because it was the more un-reached city on the list.  I know…differing reasons to place these two at the top of the list.  Don’t judge me. J

We decided that after visiting both cities, if we didn’t fall in love with either one, then we would move to the next two cities on the list.  What we didn’t account for is if we fell in love with both cities, which is exactly what happened.   Now we were faced with a dilemma.

What do you do when you have two choices in front of you that are both great choices?

Rarely have I been in this situation before.  In marriage, I had one great choice.  In choosing a church to work at, I had one great choice.  In college, well only one chose me, so that was my great choice.

As Sara and I discussed day after day what we sensed the Lord telling us, there were many things that lead us toward Denver, but there was one thing that sealed our decision.

In Denver, God seemed to be stoking more of a fire for us than He was in Miami.

I don’t mean that God gave us a burning bush experience or that we felt extreme heat in Denver, but rather God was already up to something in Denver and was welcoming us to be a part.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  God is doing some great things in Miami. There are some phenomenal churches in Miami and God is moving in mighty ways and we believe there are church planters that God is stoking a unique fire for in Miami, it just wasn’t us at this time.

We sensed God was doing something unique in Denver and He was inviting us to be a part of it.

Pastor Greg Surratt has taught over the year, Instead of moving in a direction and asking God to bless where you are going, try to find out where God is already blessing and see if He will let you join Him.  For us, God was already blessing Denver in some unique ways and it seemed pretty apparent that He was going to allow us to join in that blessing.

After we processed that God was already stoking a fire in Denver and was allowing us to be a part of what He was blessing, our choice was easy.  We made a long, arduous decision by simply relying on the belief that if God is already blessing something and He would allow us to be a part, then we should jump on board.

How about you?  What decisions are you faced with today?  Do you have two great opportunities in front of you?

If so, then my encouragement to you is to find out where God is blessing and see if He’ll allow you to be a part of that movement.  Life is great when we join God where He is blessing.  Find out where and GO!!