I'm sitting in my living room on a very chilly November night in GA. My overstuffed chair is facing my fireplace where the logs and flames have dwindled into glowing embers. My dog, Jake, is snuggled up next to me as I type. And I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing by starting this darned blog...
Although I have been known to write on occasion, and have the college degree to back it, for some reason, I have never been a consistent journal keeper. I actually fight it. Either I think that things aren't important enough to write down, or maybe they're too painful to document for future recollection. I think the latter would be a more suiting assessment - at least if you are looking at the past few months of my life. There has been a pretty huge dose of pain... or refining... or sifting... Whatever you want to call it, it has not exactly been an easy journey. Someone told me a few months ago, "I wouldn't wish your circumstances on anyone, but I wouldn't trade what God will do through them for anything." I have adopted this perspective on my current situation, because if there is one thing I know for certain, if there is ever anyone who can bring good out of a bad situation, God can. Actually, it's His specialty.
There is way too much water under the bridge to rehash the details of my downfall so I will save it for another time. But let's just say that the title of this blog is how I anticipate looking back on my journey - as one that was "safely through". It comes from a lyric in a song I wrote, which I actually stole from a book my sister wrote... both of which refer to the fact that God never promised there would be no fires or deserts in our lives, He only promised that He would bring us safely through them.
So here I am, walking through one of the most difficult, humbling, painful, discouraging, devastating seasons of my life. I can identify with the Psalmist in Psalm 63 when he says, "I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts." There is something about the desert that causes you to hunger and thirst for God like nothing else can. It is in the desert where you find that God is all you have, and you come to realize that He is all you need. Hopefully... eventually, you get to the place where He is all you want...
Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you." (C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)
So here we go.... Let's just see if blogging works better for me than journaling!
Although I have been known to write on occasion, and have the college degree to back it, for some reason, I have never been a consistent journal keeper. I actually fight it. Either I think that things aren't important enough to write down, or maybe they're too painful to document for future recollection. I think the latter would be a more suiting assessment - at least if you are looking at the past few months of my life. There has been a pretty huge dose of pain... or refining... or sifting... Whatever you want to call it, it has not exactly been an easy journey. Someone told me a few months ago, "I wouldn't wish your circumstances on anyone, but I wouldn't trade what God will do through them for anything." I have adopted this perspective on my current situation, because if there is one thing I know for certain, if there is ever anyone who can bring good out of a bad situation, God can. Actually, it's His specialty.
There is way too much water under the bridge to rehash the details of my downfall so I will save it for another time. But let's just say that the title of this blog is how I anticipate looking back on my journey - as one that was "safely through". It comes from a lyric in a song I wrote, which I actually stole from a book my sister wrote... both of which refer to the fact that God never promised there would be no fires or deserts in our lives, He only promised that He would bring us safely through them.
So here I am, walking through one of the most difficult, humbling, painful, discouraging, devastating seasons of my life. I can identify with the Psalmist in Psalm 63 when he says, "I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts." There is something about the desert that causes you to hunger and thirst for God like nothing else can. It is in the desert where you find that God is all you have, and you come to realize that He is all you need. Hopefully... eventually, you get to the place where He is all you want...
Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you." (C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)
So here we go.... Let's just see if blogging works better for me than journaling!
1 comment:
So I read/skimmed all the way back to the beginning.
Two thoughts.
1. The blogging thing is working.
2. Look where you are now.
You give me hope.
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