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…
If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones don’t shatter my image until you look at your own, look at your reflection in your house of glass and stay out of my closet if your own is full of trash, don’t look in my closet if your own is full of trash.~Dolly Parton
Love this blog Chuck!! You are good man loved by many! Hope you know how much you are appreciated by my family!! I’m not even a member of your church you went out of your way to pray with me before I delivered my baby and were there through all my grandparents deaths. We love your spirit and the things you do for us!~Celine
There are many ways to blog the “right” way. I’m sure it would be a regular challenge to know how much to express when blogging on a daily basis. There are also many ways to express pain the “right” way.
Blogging makes you more followable, which is a good thing for spiritual fathers. Communities need more positive role models, who are following Christ. It allows growing Christians to more easily surround themselves with other experienced Christ followers.
I praise God for you!!!! God is perfect in our weakness!!! Complainer….come on. This is just you and the world and keeping it real. I like real. I live for real. You’re experiences are helping others know to keep pluggin into Christ.
Awesome Chuck!!! Sounds like the TRUTH,for LIFE,and it points the WAY!! And thats REAL!!!
Jonathan Bryans!!! So good to hear from you! Wow… its been a long long time… and I still think about you so often, wondering how life is for you these days! Let’s chat on facebook sometime… I’m curious about your JOURNEY… betting it’s been INTERESTING and ADVENTUROUS!
Thanks for all the comments today everyone… God bless you all! Love you guys and gals so much! =)
“Faith never knows where it is being led, But it knows and loves the One who is leading.” That would be you. Never the less you do a great job at it.
Chuck, you are a great pastor, an encourager, and awesome man of God! So many people LOVE you and look up to you. You, DFC and the mighty people of god at DFC have shown me so much and have guided me to a better relationship with my Lord and Savior. God speaks through you Chuck Balsamo. You have such a gift. Thank you for all you do and thank God for putting such a wonderful man of God in my life
Nice comment about faith Sammi! You really have a strong gift from God… from your recent comments I can see how you see things… and your paradigm is BEAUTIFUL! I can’t wait to see how God is going to use you in the future!
Lisa… Im going to see Doug next week… as long as I am on his list of approved visitors. Been praying fro you guys… so impressed with your deep FAITH in such a challenging season. Greater things are yet to come, greater thing are still to be done in YOUR lives! Thanks for the encouragement… God bless you!!!
Reading your blog encourages me, uplifts me and gives me daily seeds if not for me this day it may be for me to hold on to and pass to another.
Your life is an open book or better yet an open blog but one that is spiritual inspired and led by the WORD of GOD, Led by Spirit and Truth.
Think on what you just told Lisa about better things are yet to come and know that on the days that you feel deflated (not defeated) but just a bit of the air knocked out of you, know its in those days that God is breathing HIS breath of LIFE into you and you just need to allow HIM to fill you back up.
So welcome those times now with great anticipation knowing God is up to something HUGE and when He is done filling you back up again you will soar to new levels. If you fight it you will lose. Just imagine what happens to a balloon when it is full of air and let loose without tying the knot. It takes off it every direction not knowing where it will land and it is totally deflated. (that won’t happen to you though)
Thanks for going to see Doug! Patsy will let me know when he calls or by Sunday for sure about the list. We are almost positive you are on it though.
Wow, I can totally relate to this experience of yours. 10 years ago, it felt like everything was going great for me also and that God was right there opening up the seas for us. Now, even though I feel closer to him, life seems to suck in just about every way. I don’t know if this is a test for our family, but it is getting tiring and I feel worn out with it all.
Des… I have been praying for you since reading this post. Over the time we have known each other in the blog realm, I feel like I’ve gotten to know you pretty well… and you seem like an AMAZING person. I just keep reminding myself of how great Jesus was and how much the devil POUNDED him! Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. I pray for God to bring you some rest… and new inspiration! God bless you Des… you and your family! =)
Des….I am praying for you!!!!