The End Or The Beginning

The following set of quotes are from a book titled "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
"I don't live good stories."
"You're right, you aren't living a good story."
"Well, what do I do about it?"
"You're a writer. You know what to do."
"No I don't."
Jordan looked at me with his furrowed brow again. "You just put something on the page," he said. "Your life is a blank page. You write on it."

After all of this, after everything I've been through and learned, everything is so simple.

The title of my blog is The Wonder Of A Blank Page.
Why did I choose this?
Because I'm a writer and because one of the best things about being a writer is you get to create whatever you want to create on that page.
The same is true in our lives...we have a blank page, a blank canvas, in front of us.
We can write whatever we want on it.

Since last August, I haven't been living a very good story.
Oh sure, there have been great parts...but overall, the story I've been writing isn't the one I want to be writing.
Writing a good story is easy. Daydreaming about all that I want life to be is easy.
I want a lot of things. I want to change the world.
All of that is fine and good, but who really cares?
Everybody wants that.
Few people actually do it.
That's why so many people never reach their dreams...they aren't willing to get up off the couch and pursue those dreams. They're never willing to pursue those dreams and sacrifice whatever is necessary to obtain those dreams.

So for me...this is the end...or the beginning.

As of today, I'm going to stop writing and start living.
I'm turning off the TV, shutting the laptop, deactivating Facebook, Twitter, stop blogging, etc.
I'm going to stop dreaming and start living.

Perhaps today is the end of my writing journey, or maybe it's finally the beginning.

"I wonder, then, if when people say life is meaningless, what they really mean is their lives are meaningless?" - Donald Miller

I refuse to sit around and dream and hope.
It's time to get up.
It's time to live a good story.
It's time to live a consistent story, every day.

Living a good story is all about choices. We make thousands of choices every single day, and those choices mark our journies.
Our choices define us.
So today I am choosing to start over, to start fresh, to start new.
I'm choosing to write a good story.
It won't be easy.
I'll want to crawl back and hide in the familiar.
Writing a good story will involve risk and hardship, but it will be worth it in the end.

At the end of your life, you won't look back at all the money you made or the classes you passed or the things you had, you will look at the people around you.
Your journey will define you.
The story you write with your life is the story that everyone will remember you by.
I want to write a good story.
Today is Ch. 1.

"The average Christian in the United States spends ten minutes per day with God; meanwhile, the average American spends over four hours a day watching television."
"Are you willing to say to God that He can have whatever He wants? Do you believe that wholehearted commitment to Him is more important than any other thing or person in your life? Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made?"
"God measures our lives by how we love." - Francis Chan

What kind of story will you write with your life?

"God is not someone who can be tacked onto our lives?" - Francis Chan

He IS our lives!

He is the King, who made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

He crucified His beloved Son because He wants you.

He wants all of you.

He doesn't just want part of you, sometimes.

He wants all of you.

All the time.

For the rest of your life.

That's how passionate He is about you.

Writing a good story is easy, living a good story is much harder.

It requires being very intentional.

It requires sacrifice.

A goal.

And a million other things.

It's time to live a good story.

Today is your day, your story is waiting.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
by the incomparable Dr. Seuss


Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Garden - 70x7

I simply cannot stop thinking about everything that the events in the Garden of Eden mean.

The Garden tells us a ton about the heart of God, and the love that He has for His kids.

The story of the Garden is one place we can find tremendous blessing and incredible hope in the midst of the shambles.
It is in the midst of the wreckage of humanity, in the moments before and after Eve takes the forbidden fruit and takes the bite that alters the course of history, that we find incredible lessons of the goodness and faithfulness of God.

Many subjects could be talked about, but for now, I will simply talk about: Forgiveness.

After Eve takes the bite, after she says "NO" to her Lover and says "YES" to her deceiver, we learn much about the heart of God.
We vividly see the forgiving heart of God.

Immediately after Eve sins, God comes looking for His children.
Of course He knew what they had done, but He came looking for them.
What did they do? They heard Him coming...and they hid.
They hid.
We do that too don't we?
When we hurt someone, we want to hide.
When we sin against God, we hide. But hiding doesn't heal broken relationships.

We then see the exchange between God and man.
We see the pronouncement of cursing...and blessing. (there is a TON that goes into this)

What we don't see is God violently angry at His children. He passes judgment, strong judgment, but He shows forgiveness and love.

In the very middle of this exchange, we see a huge "Garden moment."
God asks, "who told you? what have you done?"
Of course He already knows the answer...but it's almost as if He is wanting them to see HOW they fell.
Very simple - when Adam and Eve listened to a voice other than God's, they fell.
When they failed to do EXACTLY as He said, They rationalized Truth away, and fell.
Don't we do that all the time?
The voice of the world is loud, and we too often listen to the world.

Like Eve, we listen to the voice that says "did God really say?" and we eat the forbidden fruit.
because of this, many things are broken. We are fallen! We are messed up!
And then we hide...
And Jesus passionately pursues us and forgives us.
And it's this forgiveness that changes everything.

God sent His only Son to earth to die and rise again, because He has forgiven His children.
For all of us that have been gloriously called into His family, He has forgiven us in a way that is beautiful.
For everyone else...His judgment is sure. Turn to Jesus.

One of the most beautiful lines in scripture comes in Genesis 5:22 - "Enoch walked with God."
After everything that happened...after the relationship was broken in the Garden...the promise of relationship still remains.
It was as if God was promising: Men will still walk with God.

Are you hiding today?
What are you hiding from?
Is there someone you need to forgive?
Is there someone who needs your forgiveness?
Is there someone who needs you to love them again?
What needs to be made right?
Forgiveness changes everything.
The love of Jesus is our ultimate hope.
There is no place for dis-unity in the Body of Christ...may we be people quick to forgive and quick to love.
This is one of the hardest things for us to do...because it means we have to die to our own desires and choose to walk like Jesus.

How many times am I supposed to forgive?
"Jesus replied: Seventy times seven."

Perspective

One of the most important things in life is perspective.
How we view things is pivotal to the way that we live.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
-Charles Swindoll

Behind the clouds, the sun is always shining.
We just don't realize that sometimes.

When our days are dark, and the sun just doesn't seem to shine, we forget that the sun is still shining.

Like Eve way back in Eden, our perspective is often faulty.
When Satan asked, "Did God really say?" it was instantly a decision of perspective.
What God had said was plain to Eve, but her perspective was off.
Her perspective was off, and she took the fruit, and ate it, and the rest as they say...is history.

Like Eve, we face garden moments every day.
Things don't go the way we want them to; are we going to say "curse God and die" or "when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold?"
How do you respond when things don't go your way?
How do you respond when you lose a basketball game?
Fail a test?
Fail a friend?
Lose a friend?
How do you respond when what you want seems just out of reach?
When your parents die?
When your siblings don't love you?
What do you do when your best friends abandon you?
Or you don't get the job you want?
Or you don't get to do what you want with your summer?
Or you just can't have that relationship?

What do you do?
Where is God in all of that?
Is God still good in all of that?
Of course!
But often, I fail to realize that.
Often my perspective is off.

So for today, I'm simply asking that my perspective be right.
I'm praying for the eyes of Jesus so I can see things like He does.
So I can see through the clouds and see the sun.

Trials WILL come.
Life WILL be hard.
But we can have joy in any moment.
We can have joy in any moment because we serve a God who is always good.
God is a God who loves us too much to give us what we want...
He gives us His BEST instead.
He is working everything out for His great glory in the midst of all of our struggling and fighting.

We often perceive things to be a delay.
When God doesn't answer our prayers, we make it out to be a delay.
But there is no such thing in God's book.
There are no delays when it comes to God.
He exists outside of time, and He is ALWAYS working to accomplish His glory.

Take hard.
Keep fighting.
You CAN have joy in ANY moment.
God is working everything out for His good, and working everything out for His glory.
He loves you too much to leave you where you are...
He will not rest until sin is destroyed from every fiber of your body.
He will not rest until He makes you like His Son.

Our life is a struggle for perspective.
May Jesus give us eyes to see things like He does.
Everything is about His glory.
May my attitude, and my perspective be the way He wants them to be.
May I be able to say thanks and praise God even when things don't go my way.

How Will He Not Also?

"God gave up Jesus for us. He washed our grime with the bloody grace. He drove the iron ore through His own vein. Doesn't that memory alone suffice? Need there be anything more? If God didn't withhold from us His very own Son, will God withhold anything we need? If trust must be earned, hasn't God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips? How will He not also graciously give us all things He deems best and right? He's already given the incomprehensible. The counting of all blessing is ultimately summed up in the One."
-Ann Voskamp

Romans 8 - "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?! Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies! Who is to condemn? (Nobody!) Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Nobody!) Shall tribulation (nope), or distress (no way), or persecution(not even then), or famine(feast on Christ), or nakedness(complete in Thee), or danger(I have learned to be contentent whatever the circumstance), or sword(trials are blessing from the Hand of the Lover)? As it is written,
"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."



No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Everything comes down to us being loved by God. If we are loved by God, that changes everything. He who did not spare His only Son...how will He not also give us everything we need? How will He not give us what is BEST? How will He not also?

Re-Post - At God's Pace

This is a re-post from last year about this same time.
Enjoy.

------------------------------
"In God's place, at God's pace, by future Grace."

The above title was written by John Piper in his book, "Battling Unbelief."
Those 9 words have stuck with me for awhile. Behind these 9 words I see the words: trust, patience, and letting go.

Trust.
The word "trust" occurs 202 times in the Bible, give or take a few depending on what version you read.
It would seem that trust may be rather important.
When we really stop and look around, we see that much of life is about trust.

Examples...
The only reason that Abraham was willing to lay his son down was because of trust.
Noah build the ark because he trusted God.
The disciples preached the gospel because they trusted God, and they trusted that His promises were sure.
Martyers throughout history have refused to deny Christ because they trust in the reality of Jesus.

Bad examples...
Jonah was eaten by a whale because he didn't trust God.
Lot's wife looked back at Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt because she didn't trust.
The Israelites grumbled in the desert because they didn't trust God.

Also, it is only when we FULLY trust Jesus with our WHOLE heart that we find TRUE and REAL JOY. Romans 15:13 - "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." We are filled with all joy and peace AS we trust, never before we trust.

Trust is ultimately, surrender.
It's saying, "God, you must do this, I can't do this."
It's taking ourselves off of the throne, and placing God back in His rightful place.
In America especially, we really don't understand the meaning of trust. We don't have to, unless we are intentional about it.
Without much effort we are provided with our daily necessities. If we have a lot going on, we may have to trust God for help on a test. If a person comes across our path that we don't like very much, instead of learning patience by interacting with this person, we simply move on with our lives.
I never have to really trust God for my daily bread...for a warm bed, for water or food, for the basic necessities.
But sometimes, God sends things into our life that force us to trust, that force us to wait, that force us to let go, that force us to learn patience...and He does this because those things are absolutely vital. They are things that we must learn, or we will never truly live as God intends for us to live.

Do we get this? Do we really understand that we cannot live Biblically until we learn to trust? We will never be able to experience real relationship with Christ until we can accept anything from His loving hands as GOOD.

It is amazing the freedom and the rest that comes from fully trusting.
It takes all of the pressure off.
It's placing everything back into the hands of the One who made the world.
It brings real joy and real peace.
Oh, but it's hard to do.
It's real hard.
It's hard to do because my heart is deeply flawed by sin
it's hard to do because I am a selfish creature and I need to be continually changed by God
it's hard because I seize control back from God because I think I know better
it's hard because...well...I make it hard. I kick and scream when God is trying to teach me patience, but I will never win.
God's arms are too long to box with, I might as well stop trying and give in.
I am really immature when it comes to life sometimes.
Life really isn't all that complicated.
It's trust. But sometimes I just don't get that.
It's as plain and simple as that, sometimes I just don't get it.
I kick and scream and I want my own way.
And God just kinda looks down and smiles and He must laugh at all of my striving, and He lets me kick and scream some more and then, finally I get tired. Finally I come to my senses and give in. I say, "ok God, all of this striving has led up to this vital moment...You must do this, I cannot do this."

"In God’s place" - Certain things will happen in life, they are all planned out. They are sure...but they are In God's place.
"At God’s pace" - The things are planned and sure, but they will happen in HIS time and NOT MINE.
"By future grace" - God has been faithful to provide grace for every step of the journey so far, and He will continue to provide it in the future.

"Impatience is a form of unbelief. Its what we feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of God’s guidance. …The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss. It’s a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned pace of obedience – to wait in his place and go at his pace.
Patience demands tremendous inner strength." - Piper

"The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours." - Piper

"A legend says that Moses once sat near a well in meditation. A wayfarer stopped to drink from the well and when he did so his purse fell from his girdle into the sand. The man departed. Shortly afterwards another man passed near the well, saw the purse and picked it up. Later a third man stopped to assuage his thirst and went to sleep in the shadow of the well. Meanwhile, the first man had discovered that his purse was missing and assuming that he must have lost it at the well, returned, awoke the sleeper (who of course knew nothing) and demanded his money back. An argument followed, and irate, the first man slew the latter. Where upon Moses said to God “You see, therefore men do not believe you. There is too much evil and injustice in the world. Why should the first man have lost his purse and then become a murderer? Why should the second have gotten a purse full of gold without having worked for it? The third was completely innocent. Why was he slain?” God answered “For once and only once, I will give you an explanation. I cannot do it at every step. The first man was a thief’s son. The purse contained money stolen by his father from the father of the second man, who finding the purse only found what was due him. The third was a murderer who crime had never been revealed and who received from the first the punishment he deserved. In the future believe that there is sense and righteousness in what transpires even when you do not understand." - Piper

"When delays and detours and frustrations and opposition ruin our plans and bode ill for us, faith in future grace lays hold on the sovereign purpose of God to bring something magnificent to pass. This is the key to patience." - Piper

Lamentations 3
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him."

25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him,
to the one who seeks Him;

26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the LORD has laid it on him.

29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.

31 For men are not cast off
by the Lord forever.

32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.

37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?

38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?

39 Why should any living man complain
when punished for his sins?

40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the LORD.

55 I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit.

56 You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief."

57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, "Do not fear."

I will not fear because God is near.

The LORD is good to those who wait for him. Lamentations 3:25

Patience is vitally necessary.
Trust is vitally necessary.
Rest is vitally necessary.

Trust is:
Trust is believing that God's ways are right even when they don't make sense here and now.
Trust is being willing to change schools because God says so, and then change again...and then change again.
Trust is going to spend a summer at a camp when people are telling you not to go, that there are better things to do with your time.
Trust is going to Thailand over Christmas break even if I can't see where the money will come from.
Trust is adopting a child, moving to Africa, selling your house, giving your money away.
Trust is knowing there is a reason for ministry.
Trust is waking up at 6:00 every morning for a huge goal.
Trust is knowing there is a reason for the circumstance.
Trust is starting the orphanage even when it appears that there isn't sufficient funds.
Trust is believing that God wants you to adopt a child from China even when people around you are saying don't do it, it costs too much.
Trust is doing what God says, even when others say IT COSTS too much...
Trust is believing that God is up to something good in all of our percieved detours and delays.
Trust is remembering ALL that God has done in the past! And KNOWING, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that He will continue to lead, guide and direct in the days ahead.
Trust brings joy.
Trust brings rest.
Trust brings salvation.
Trust brings hope.
Trust is surrender.
Because we can trust Jesus, our trust is never in vain, it is secure.
Our trust is sure.


While I cannot say that I trust well all of the time, or even part of the time, I can say that it is something that God is teaching me. If we think about it, we learn to trust with every breath we take, with every step we make. We are always trusting something, but sometimes trust just gets thrown to the forefront and it becomes really obvious that trust is what God is teaching.

So, for now, even though I am not good at it yet...
I will trust that God is teaching me to trust.
I will trust that the hands of the Refiner are molding my heart to more fully trust His heart.
I will trust that one of the most important things for God to teach us is trust, and so, I will walk through the fire and pray that He purifies through it.

God is an unsatisfied Redeemer.
He will not rest until every fiber of sin is completely destroyed from the hearts of His children.
He loves us too much to leave us in the state we are in, and so He sets about restoring us from the inside out.
Because He is in the process of changing us, He must change our heart and make it fully His.
He also must teach us to trust.
It is a loving thing to do for the Father to teach His children to trust Him.
What intimacy there is in this picture!

At the end of the day, we are to "have the same attitude Jesus Christ had," Phil. 2:5 - Jesus trusted His Father completely...
and so, we must get to the point where we can say, "not my will, Father, but Yours be done."
We must fully recognize, and understand and trust that, "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless," 2 Samuel 22:31. God's way is always perfect.
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as rightousness. Abraham trusted God.

Hebrews 11:
1 - "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Faith is a lot like trust, they are very similar, very closely related.
(I know they are not fully the same, but this is just to make a point.)
2 - This (faith) is what the ancients were commended for.
8 - By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
10 - For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
17 - By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

At the beginning of Hebrews 12, we see a wonderful picture of a person running a race.
The verses say to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Why would those verses say to fix our eyes on Jesus?
Why not just concentrate on running a little harder?
Why not take a drink?
Why not look around and take in the scenery?
To get a little better view of this, let's use our imaginations a little bit.
Imagine you are running across a beach towards an ice cream stand!
It is a sunny afternoon, 85 degrees, beautiful.
However, the beach is very crowded, and there are many obstacles and hardships and scary people and crashing waves and loud noises. Oh, and you are a 3 year old little kid.
This is a scary place! Running doesn't sound so much fun anymore!
You start to tremble, your pace starts to slow, fear begins to overcome you, trust goes out the window.
But then you look up, and you see your Fathers eyes peering down at you.
He is walking slowly and confidently at your side, just a little bit ahead of you. You are simply following your Father.
He smiles, and says, "come on son, just a few more steps, and then we can get some ice cream!"
Immediately, all of your fear and trepidation is immediately washed away!
You bound ahead, full of joy and energy.
As long as your Father is there, everything is going to be ok.

That same picture is conveyed here.
As long as our eyes are on the One whose intense love for us was revealed on that old rugged cross, nothing can stop us.
As long as our eyes are on the One who holds the stars in His hands, we have hope.
It is easy to trust in the Author of the story. The Author has already penned the ending, and His children are His prize possession.
Trials may come.
Hope may seem to fade.
Mountain peaks may loom.
Danger may come.
But nothing can ever touch His children without His consent.
As for God, His plans for His children are perfect.
We must simply trust in Him, trust in the One who is the Author of the story, and find peace.

And so for now...
even though I have yet to fully learn to trust...
I am content.
God is teaching me to trust.
He is teaching me to wait.
He is teaching me to be patient.
He is teaching me to let go.

As a sinner, those are very foreign concepts for me.
But my heart is under construction by a faithful God who will not rest until it fully restored.
Transformation may not always be easy, it can in fact hurt.
But it is such an incredible blessing from the hand of a God who is more loving than I can fully comprehend.

Thank You Jesus, for teaching me to trust.
Thank You Jesus, that You never stop working on me.
Thank You Jesus, that You are the Author of the story and that You have already penned every page of my story.
Thank You Jesus, that You have allowed me to be a part of Your story, help me to bring You glory, because the story is all about You, it's never about me.
Thank You Jesus, that You bring neverending joy to my life!
Thank You Jesus, for Your place.
Thank You Jesus, for Your pace.
Thank You Jesus, for Your grace.