I’m packing again for the second time in less than a year. It’s really not big news, since most of you had figured out a long time ago that I’m moving back to Mobile, Alabama in a couple weeks. May 10th is my last day in Fort Worth.
Mobile isn’t an easy place for me to return to. Going home means going back to most the mistakes I’ve made over the last 15 years. It means going to a city where I feel outnumbered. Sometimes it seems like I have more enemies there than friends. It’s a difficult situation. I faced more opposition and spiritual warfare in Mobile than I ever did in New Orleans or Fort Worth. In some cases I’ll have to clean up my mistakes; in other cases may be forced to face those demons again.
Doom and gloom aside, I’m excited about some new friends I’ve made and that some old friends, thankfully, are still around. I see a bright future for the church in Mobile, and with it a bright future for Mobile itself. I have some big plans for living in Mobile, and I’ll post about those ideas in the coming weeks and months. As for right now, I need to find a job and a place to live.
Five years ago as I prepared to graduate from the University of Mobile and move to New Orleans for seminary, I was encouraged by Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
May it be so. I’ve stared into the eyes of evil before, and by the grace of God I felt no fear then. I will have no fear now.
by Joe Kennedy
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