Good Morning!

Wow you guys… thanks for all the encouragement on yesterdays blog. I really feel bad about letting things get the best of me yesterday… and then blogging about my pain. At the moment, it seemed right to be transparent about my feelings… maybe God just wanted me to work through that in private. 

Here’s WHY I wrote like that yesterday: For the past 18 years, I have kept a DAILY journal of my life. Every morning, in early prayer… I would write about my joys, challenges, defeats, and victories… and how God lived THROUGH me in the good, the bad, and the ugly times.

In my private journals, I hold nothing back. I record my humanity in all its weakness… how I wrestle through everything thrown my way, how God carries me in my darkest moments, how I feel SO ALONE at times… it records all my tears and all my smiles!

Then I began blogging… and the goal was to take my journal public, so that the world could watch a regular guy WALK WITH GOD in an everyday REAL LIFE kind of way! I wanted to write as TRANSPARENTLY as I journaled, so that others could get a very REAL picture of my very REAL challenges, and a very REAL picture of my very REAL victories and defeats!

I’m not a perfect guy and I’ve never claimed to be anywhere CLOSE to perfect. On bad days, I don’t blog transparently so that others can become weak like me… but so that others can watch God pick my up and save my day! God is ALWAYS FAITHFUL… and that can be seen so clearly in my REAL LIFE! 

For some reason… I have endured more HELL than most of my peers! I’m trying not to complain too much about this and I don’t want to be a whiner… and when I mention my pain you have a chance to see how God reaches me and carries me through the craziest things. 

Already, just 220 blogs into this… I feel the pressure to normalize my experiences, and put on a well polished show for my audience. I have not written as transparently as I had hoped. This is due to the facts of private circumstances and how they intercept with other persons in my life. My family doesn’t mind opening the doors and windows of our home… but other families do… and I want to respect their undeclared wishes to stay out of my journal.

For the first 11 years of my journey with God, I experienced UNCOMMON SUCCESS! Everything I touched turned into GOLD, and EVERYONE LOVED ME! I was the best friend of so many people! I was everyones INSPIRATION… the greatest encourager most people had ever known. It felt so AMAZING to be LOVED and APPRECIATED by so many people.

Then, over the past 7 years… Pastoring a church has made me feel like one of the most hated men in my community. I have not changed in the least… I still pray and read my bible for a few hours every morning… I still worship God with all my heart… I care today more than ever about bringing people to Christ and helping them to mature in their faith… I visit every sick person… write cards, emails, and phone calls of encouragement to as many people as I can get to each and every week…. I CHEER like crazy over the littlest and biggest successes of ALL my acquaintances… I believe in people, and seek to empower them… and I pray for the wisdom of Solomon in all my Pastoral leading. I’m not in this to BUILD MY OWN KINGDOM as some would suggest… but I LIVE to help people… and to EXPAND GODS kingdom.

Despite all my genuine efforts to MAKE A DIFFERENCE… and how carefully I have lived so as to keep from offending people… I am still misunderstood, mistreated, and misrepresented. This is not a complaint… just a very transparent look into the reason I buckle under pressure sometimes. Everyone cries… everyone buckles. 

Despite all my pain, somehow God keeps on CARRYING ME! Somehow I love people MORE this morning than I did three months ago… not less. Somehow, I have more FAITH today than yesterday… and more COMPASSION than ever before! In all my challenges, I see more of a need for a SAVOR than I ever did before… and a million reasons to keep moving forward! And if God can carry me through all of this… then maybe he can carry you in all your hardship! REAL life is challenging… REAL life is not always fair… REAL life sucks at times. But if we will keep on walking with God, we will experience the POWER of his AMAZING GRACE!

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Three different times I begged the Lord to TAKE IT AWAY. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My POWER works best in WEAKNESS.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I TAKE PLEASURE IN MY WEAKNESS, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG.   

Have a super duper day everyone… you’re all overcoming something to keep on SERVING GOD and keep on LOVING PEOPLE! I’m cheering for you and praying for you! Grace and peace…