I finally went back to church.
We live and work in the Nashville area, and absolutely love it. Eileen and I have been blessed to live and minister from the East Coast to the West Coast, and nearly back again. We’ve enjoyed every place we’ve lived and served Christ, and we’ve loved the people the Lord has given us to embrace. That’s the adult part of my life. So I have a multifaceted answer to the frequent question, “Where ya from?”
The kid part of my life is no simpler. When people ask me where I grew up, I don’t find it any easier to answer. My childhood stretched from Texas to New Jersey, you see. My family put down important roots in more than one part of the country, so my answer usually takes longer than it takes to say, “City X.” I guess you could conclude that I’m from nowhere, and I’m from everywhere, all at the same time.
I’m a two-time graduate of the University of Kentucky with a particular affinity for the Bluegrass Region, but my school-age years included Grades 4 through 10 in Georgia. Last week, I went back to Moultrie, Georgia.
In some ways, going back was a surreal experience. Though nearly half a century has passed since I lived there, the depth of the powerful memories and cherished relationships was overwhelming. As long as I live, my friends “below the gnat line” will matter to me, for they were a critical part of my personal and spiritual formation. God used them to lay at least some of the bricks that were foundational to my self-understanding. These dear people helped me become the man I am.
Yes, I finally went back to church. I went back to my childhood church, which you see in this photo.
It’s a one-of-a-kind place in my estimation, as it housed the remarkable community of faith that painstakingly taught me hymns, Bible stories, and all the words of the Apostles’ Creed. Why do those early memories still hold such monumental significance in my heart? Because they’re some of my first recollections of being drawn into relationship with the living God!
As I’m still unpacking all my feelings, and reliving my past, here’s what I’m discovering. As I was growing up, my family’s need to relocate more than once meant that we we became soul-level accustomed to uprooting our lives and adjusting to new people, places, and circumstances. For me, that meant that most everything felt subject to change: house, neighborhood, school, church, friends, regional peculiarities … change became the constant companion of my childhood.
Though change can be more than a bit unsettling, God can use it for His glory and our good. Looking back, I consider my roots a unique smorgasbord of wonderful people, places, and cultures that helped shape and mature me. I’m grateful for my roots, difficult as they may have been to navigate at times, and difficult as they may be to describe in a single sentence.
But here’s the more beautiful part. The constant uprooting that I associate with my childhood has made me even more appreciative of the unshakable rootedness that is mine in Jesus Christ. I was a child when He first captured my attention in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That story first came alive to me in the church in South Georgia, in the children’s choir, when and where God used Mrs. Gammage as His conduit of grace and truth.
I know now that the God who stepped into the fiery furnace with Daniel’s friends has never abandoned me. Through every trial and through every transition, He who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” remained. Every day, every place, every circumstance.
Christ has rooted me in Himself. Through His Word, through His people, and by His Spirit, He has held me fast, every step of the way. My ultimate security is in Him alone.
For those of us who are the Lord’s redeemed, our firm foundation is more than our past experiences, but our past experiences have served as some of the tools which our faithful God has used to solidify our comprehension of our permanent identity in Christ.
Though I don’t understand them all, I’m humbly grateful for each twist and turn in the road that has marked my journey. For I have roots that are strong enough and deep enough to endure forever. “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).
I once was lost, but now am found.
Pastor Charles
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