There’s a strange dichotomy that goes on in this head of mine. The moment I gave my life to Christ, I felt a strong, relentless desire to abandon myself to God’s call to ministry. A desire to proclaim the excellencies of God to this world. To shout His praises from the highest of high mountains that all may know and see that Jesus is who He says He is. So that, as 1 Kings 8:60 says, “all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God.” I wanted to lift my voice and proclaim boldly, “Behold your God!” (Isaiah 40:9). I had been plucked out of the mire, out of a deep dark pit of despair, and I wanted others to know what I had come to know. “People need to know this,” I’d say. “God is who He says He is. He is real. And He actually does, today, what He…
As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I took some time off through the holidays to be with my family, and let me tell you: the last few weeks have been wonderful! It was such a blessing to have ended 2014 with a bit of rest. I honestly felt like I had been sprinting the entire year of 2014, and so when given the opportunity to STOP, I joyfully took it! My girls went back to school this week, and though I miss them, I must admit that it’s nice to write again. I’m working on the FINAL edits for my book, Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness, this week. That’s right––THE FINAL EDITS!!! I can hardly believe I’m at this point in my journey. My book, the thing I was called to three years ago this month, is almost complete! This time once seems so incredibly far…
Will God fail me? I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all asked this question––either consciously or unconsciously––at one time or another. In fact, it may be this very question that underlies our inability to give ourselves fully to God and His purposes in our lives. We think, perhaps God doesn’t love me. Perhaps God is too busy or too majestic to care about one individual such as myself. Or even if He does love me, even if He cares, He certainly doesn’t care about each intricate detail of my life. Will God pull through? Doubts come. Questions arise. All of which are a part of the normal process of faith. But I think the real question behind all our doubts is: Does God really love me? This is the real doubt behind our unwillingness to surrender. It all comes back to love. We were created to be loved…
To the brokenhearted – I know you’re lonely. I know that your heart has shattered into what feels like a thousand pieces. And I too know that you’re probably wondering if the pain you feel right now will ever go away. I know this because I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to have someone ripped from your life, one terrible moment. I know how hard it is to believe they’re gone. I remember wondering if I was ever going to feel normal again––wondering how long it would take to heal. But now that I’m on the other side and many years have passed between then and now, I’d like to whisper some truth to your broken heart this Christmas, if you’ll let me. I know you may not see Him right now, but God is with you. I didn’t see Him at the time, but looking back, I now know that God was…
“Did you write our mommy notes yet?” I hear my girls ask most mornings before school. “Yep! It’s in your lunch box,” I say, as we head out the door to start our day. These little, seemingly insignificant “mommy notes”––as my girls dubbed them––mean the world to my two daughters. They don’t just read them. They cherish them. They keep them. In fact, there are times that I see them pull out an enormous stack of mommy notes so they can read them all over again. Ella even knows which one is the very first mommy note I gave her on her first day of first grade, over two years ago (we homeschooled for kindergarten). And let me tell you, on the rare occasion that I don’t have time to write that sacred little note, you better believe that I hear about it. It almost seems they’re not quite filled with my love…