After the shuttering of this blog last week for neglecting to pay my hosting fees, this return feels rather underwhelming. It’s kind of like (this is a terrible analogy) Jesus riding back into town on the young donkey. Yes, I neglected to pay the people who hosted this website and that’s why there was no post on Monday…or Thursday. However, I was able to prevail over hosting companies, website migration, and databases (don’t get me started). I’m just glad to be back. And friends, I feel refreshed after my near two weeks away.

On that note, from now on, I will not simply post on a schedule to post words on the internet. I encourage you to “cojourn with me” through subscribing to this blog via email if you don’t want to miss a post in the future. Not that I feel the content recently has been bad, but there have been far too many mornings that have felt less than my best, less than inspired. And I want to curtail those, if not end them altogether. You deserve more. So, now I offer you a teaser of what I’ve been learning, and of what I’ll go into more detail regarding next week. Yes, I’ve already lined up a couple posts (by no fault of my own) for y’all.

God is proud of you

“God, You’re proud of me. You’re proud of who I am today. You’re proud of who You’re making me to be tomorrow. You love me with a love fiercer than anything I’ve ever known. You are for me, and there is nothing that can ever change that fact. You are my ever-loving Father. You are not just my dad, but You are my Dad. Thank You.”

That’s a paraphrase of a quiet time I had last weekend. Have you ever come to terms with the fact that God is indeed proud of who you are this very minute? Are you aware that the person you are right now is exactly who He wants you to be at this very moment? Are you in unaware that He has held your hand every step along the way as a proud father guides the first steps of his most cherished young one? Well, think about it. Because, that realization has the power to change lives.

If we abandon ourselves to Him…

“Abba, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all: I accept all. Let your will be done in me and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my spirit. I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and I will give myself, surrender myself into your hands without reserve, with boundless confidence, for your are my Father.” — Charles Foucauld

I found this gem of a prayer reading on in The Ragamuffin Gospel last weekend. To make a long story short, I had read this prayer out of order right before having a tough conversation. Since that conversation, I’ve needed to pray those words once a day this week. Those words also have the power to change lives. They have the power to loose the frail illusion of control I have over my situation and recognize under whose reign they rightly fall. They speak of reckless abandon of rights, comfort, assurance. They speak of a craziness that scares me to death. However, I know in my core that death might just bring about life truer than I could ever know otherwise. Maybe…

And so I leave you all with these two seeds of insight into my life and what God’s been doing in it the past couple weeks. I hope, I pray as I type this, that this post finds you well and speaks to your soul. If you struggle with either of these topics, maybe try praying through the quotes. God is proud of you. And if you abandon yourself to Him, He will not let you down. If you’d rather not go that route and you don’t have someone else to speak to, you have my contact info on the About page. Don’t hesitate to email me. I wish you all peace this Friday and the subsequent weekend. Till Monday, friends.