Yesterday was officially my last day on staff at The CORE. I don’t want to let the day go by without a post, but I’ll be honest…words will fail to sum up the myriad of emotions going on inside my head and heart right now.

As I only begin to look back and reflect on the last two years one major thing jumps out at me. It is that one thing that will ultimately define my time at The CORE, my time in Appleton,WI, and the ministry that was my life the last two years. That one thing is relationships. At the end of the day, when I look back, when I look for lessons to take away, when I stumble upon memories that make me both laugh and cry, at the center of it all I find people. The relationships I have developed here are the reason I will always have a root that is planted in Appleton. And the way in which God orchestrated and used those relationships to teach me lessons and to pull me closer to Him leaves me in awe of Him once again.

For me it’s a great reminder that it really all does boil down to God’s simple command: Love Him, love others. When we take the time to dig down through the messy layers that the machine of ministry can sometimes pile on, I hope and pray we discover that loving God and loving others is really why we got into ministry in the first place.

In the days ahead there is definitely going to be some processing of a huge chapter of my life closing. But there will also be plenty of dreaming about the new chapter that is just beginning. And somewhere in between is today.