I had a pretty rough week.

Truth be told (since occasionally I strive to be honest on this blog) I was so stressed I physically made myself sick.....for a couple days.

Don't feel sorry for me, it really was/is my own fault. REALLY. You see, I have this problem trusting God. Sometimes I feel like if I don't line everything up for Him perfectly, He might not honor my plan. Like He NEEDS ME to do His oraganizing and planning or He just won't show up.

What is that about?
Where did that come from?
Questions for another day, for now, true confessions from one striving to grow her faith.

So, we are starting up a little ol soccer league at our church. And to be real honest, the whole thing was NEVER my idea. I had a whole list of reasons why it wasn't a good idea. And once I did decide I had to tell my senior pastor about it, I shared all those reasons with him. It will cost way too much, we don't have enough time, no one cares about soccer in Needville, we don't have the land, we won't get enough coaches, refs, you name it........

When God has a plan, He will see it through. With or without my help....

I can't even begin to list out for you the amazing things He has done this week to show me this soccer league is HIS show, and He has just been kindly waiting for me to step aside.

From packages arriving the day they say they were shipped (from other states), to newspapers running our story, to the culmination of one incredibly awe-filled weekend.


But this weekend, I learned what Jesus smelled like.

If you have ever wondered what it would have been like to serve alongside Jesus in the flesh. To touch His skin, to know his scent, to share in such a personal friendship with Him, well this weekend I smelt it.

With a heat index over 100 five amazing servants of Christ laid two soccer fields on our 15 acre campus. From measuring, to marking, to digging three feet into the earth...and then some, these people poured off buckets of sweat. Why?

So maybe, just maybe, a child might know that God loves them when they play on their first soccer team this fall.
So, possibly, when they see their coaches dedicate their actions, words, and time to God they will model their own lives after them.
So perhaps, one day when life is coming at them faster than they can handle, they will remember their coach saying God is more than enough.
So that if even one hears of this man Jesus and believes, their life will never again be the same.

And at the hottest part of the day, approaching our sixth hour of sweat, a joke broke out.
"Why are you taking my picture when I smell this bad?"
"Oh, they won't be able to smell you in this picture."
"Do you know what I smell like? Do you know how bad I smell?"

"Yeah, you smell like Jesus."


How cool is God that the most challenging spiritual truth of the weekend was wrapped in jest and sweat?
How often do I look for these truths in books written by people smarter than me?
Or in the lives of those "holier than I"?

When all the time these truths are all around me in the simple, everyday places.

In sweat and laughter.

In tears and hugs.

And I can't get enough of this Jesus.