Almost 4 years ago exactly I moved into the Shotgun.

(For those who might wonder, the name comes from the architecture. I’ll claim coming up with that.)

I remember sitting with William Monts and Sam Mitchell in a little house across from Anderson University and dreaming. We didn’t really know what we were doing, and we didn’t really know how to express what we desired. We just longed for a house without cliques, without separate refrigerator shelves…a house where anyone who needed anything would be welcome. We still don’t really know how to express it. We just wanted to live like Christ and for Christ…and so much of that seemed centered around your home..your vulnerable personal space. It was a crazy dream. But Sam and I took a step of faith and didn’t apply for school housing for the next year. And the Lord gave us a house.

There is simply just no way I can convey all that the Lord has done in my life in those 4 years. I’ve seen over 15 guys come and go…whether they stayed on the couch a few weeks or lived there for years. I’d be willing to bet every single one of them would say their lives were radically changed here too.

Honestly, one of the greatest joys has just been to see the Lord work in the lives of the other guys I’ve lived with. I’ve seen people learn to love people they never would have talked to before. I’ve seen God call and work in guys lives…calling them out to crazy unreasonable things. I’ve seen generosity triumph over materialism and love over selfishness. I’ve seen people hang out that never would have been friends otherwise. I’ve seen the Lord bring over 150 people from the neighborhood over for dinner. I’ve seen our bills get paid for 4 years with most of us not really having “real” jobs. I’ve seen the Lord work incredible healing in so many guys. Somehow the porch swing just seems to be a haven for whatever you need to express…not to mention South, who has never met someone he didn’t love and who will listen for hours without trying to tell you how to fix it.

(South is a dog. AKA the man in tan.)

And what I love is that this hasn’t happened with the “cool group of guys” who already got along or had it all together…whoever that is. It’s been the most hodgepodge group guys! And we haven’t been perfect. Honestly, I haven’t always been excited when someone moved in. But I’ve always been sad when someone moved out. And it hasn’t happened through planned “ministry” time or Bible studies. Those things have their place, for sure. But the biggest thing at the Shotgun has just been the daily life conversations. The “how was your day man?” that turned into two hours later. The late nights on the porch by the fire or the spontaneous middle of the night trip to Waffle House. Back in the earlier days we used to quote Patch Adams: “Everyone who comes to the house is a patient. But everyone who comes to the house is also a doctor.” That’s so true.

So as I leave the Shotgun for a new season, I just want to testify to how faithful the Lord has been. The work He has done in my heart over the past 4 years is more than I can even begin to describe. It’s sad to leave for awhile, and I have no way of knowing if I will ever live there again. But in one sense I think I will never leave the Shotgun. The ripples from the things dropped in my heart there will certainly color the rest of my life.

As I’ve reflected the past few days, two things in particular have been really clear. The first is that there are some aspects of the Lord that can only be communicated to you through time. Faithfulness, for example. I have known the faithfulness of God in my head and on paper, but in the past years I have known and experienced it in my life…I’ve seen it. So hold on and don’t begrudge the process. If you can learn to value the process you won’t have to always be living for tomorrow in a “meantime…meantime…highlight…meantime…meantime..” paradigm. God is working right now today. It’s just that some aspects of God can’t be truly known except through time. God wants to give you bigger things than you can receive in a day.

The other thing I’m learning is that there are some aspects about God you can only learn through committed relationships to other people. I’m all for going where the Spirit leads, and I realize that sometimes that is like the wind. But I would encourage you, as best you can and with sensitivity to what the Lord is speaking to you, not to embrace the trend of our twenty-something culture to live completely transiently. Don’t be like the many who can never see the beauty of devotion and spend their lives chasing their latest crush. Invest. Commitment is not the opposite of freedom. Faithfulness is better than lust. Talk. Love is hard sometimes. Living with people and being vulnerable takes patience and trust. But you were made for it, and it is oh so worth it.

So farewell for now, Shotgun. And thank you. This is not the end of the book for us. Just a really good chapter.