Challenges and lions

I'm being challenged. Again. To write. Again. Not just copious blogging, but actually getting out a pen and paper (so old-fashioned, I know) and write. I don't know what I will be writing. I don't know what it is that I have to offer aside from an offbeat sense of humor and my observations on life. So, I will begin that journey. I actually have a cool journal that will probably take the brunt of my writing. We will either be best friends or bitter enemies.

Yesterday was one of the most difficult days I've had in a while. I bounced between crying and being frustrated and asking the wrong questions. Right now I'm in the gap between my past and my future. I'm paying for past mistakes, and yesterday I allowed my present circumstances to dictate my perception of my future. Which is just silly. All things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (I fit into that category.) God will never leave me nor forsake me. God is restoring what the locusts have stolen--even if I left the door open for those things to be eaten.

Today's challenge is to remind myself of the Truth when the lies rear their ugly head. You know, I'd like to see Aslan take on the devil. I have a sneaking suspicion which lion would win :-)

The conversation

I've actually convinced someone to blog. Yay! Another convert...my plan is working...haha...

Yesterday I was talking to a friend, and I was inadvertently encouraged to start writing. There are a bunch of books hidden deep within me, and it's time to start getting some of that stuff to the surface. Today I started brainstorming. I'm rather excited about some of the topics. I am by no means an expert on anything, but I know that I have something to add to the conversation. I am going to use this "free" time or "down" time to start doing something that could have a very positive long term effect not only in my life but in the life of my family as well. I don't exactly know where I will be able to go to get the peace and quiet that I will need once I actually begin the composition of the book(s) but I'm sure that there is Someone who will help me with that when the time comes.

Oh yes. Church yesterday was amazing. I am stunned at the teaching that we are receiving. I am stunned at how quickly we are growing. Yet I find myself feeling a bit perturbed that we're not growing more quickly. There are some things in the works, but I've not yet found that "thing" into which I can dig my heels and stick it out for the long haul. I thought it was the young adult ministry, but I'm not so sure. I'm certain that it is neither children's nor youth. So, all I've learned is that it is not a specialized ministry--to a particular age group. Sometime knowing what is not is just as much an answer as knowing what is. That is what I'm going to tell myself for the moment, at any rate.

I'm gleaning a lot of information from the podcasts of National Community Church and from Mosaic. I always felt previously that I was cheating on my church by listening to pastors other than those in my church and from those in "the network" and from those associated with Hillsong. Recently I've found the freedom that lay in the exchange of ideas. I've taken a lot from the conversation, and soon I too will be adding to the conversation.

Tomorrow's task will perhaps be to discover what I mean by "the conversation" because I've typed it several times and I still have no idea what it is or who is actually conversing. But right now I'm tired and I'm rambling. I'm good at that.