December 17, 2011 Greetings My Friend, Junior and I spent a couple days of driving recently. I love going on trips, day trips and longer trips. I love being in the car with my man. I love the conversations we often enter into. There are no outside distractions so we will get into some involved conversations. We explore our beliefs, our dreams and life in general. As the journey goes on we often are tired. It wears on us physically as well as emotionally. If there are detours due to construction we need to re-think our journey and how to arrive where we want to go. As I woke up this morning I was thinking that my faith is a journey. When I first became a Christian I was broken. I was devastated with my divorce. In my brokenness I wound up turning to God. At some point I wanted to go deeper and I prayed the sinner’s prayer. For me this is when I began my faith journey in earnest. I needed to make a commitment to God and this was the way for me to do that. I grew up in one church and brought my children up in the same church. I’m not into doing a lot of church shopping. I like to make a commitment and then attempt to stick with it. The divorce prompted me to move on. It was too hard seeing my ex so I found another church home. In my new church family I began to understand the faith journey in a deeper way than I had ever done before. The new church had a singles program and then when I married junior they had a re-married program which helped us a whole lot. My faith kept growing. I like to look at my faith journey like a runner does their sport. They need to constantly be examining what they are doing so they can run better and faster. The thing I love about God is he takes you right where you are at. I didn’t have to be perfect. I just had to give God my heart. God took my heart and told me that he loves me. That was an awesome moment for me. I was acceptable as I was. God takes you right where you are and then he changes you. To be in a faith journey means that you don’t stay the same. You will consistently keep growing if you are listening to God. He will point out the things he wants you to do. It may be that you need to let go of strong holds or he may guide you into a ministry. Sometimes God directs me to reach out to certain people. Out here B crossed my path. We were on the porch chatting when B came by one time. Her son was helping junior. In fact Junior saw him walking down the tracks by our house and started a conversation. He realized that J was a loner. He befriended J and then eventually asked him to help with our new home. Junior taught J some skills and the hope is he will be able to find a job. B came by to get her son and we began talking. Anyway B started talking to me and we hit it off rather well. We were giggling and chatting and having a good time. She came by a few more times and then she said she had been praying to find a girlfriend. We knew that this area has a high unemployment rate and many people are on the dole. As I discovered more about B I learned she has been on disability for decades now. She was injured pretty badly in a car accident or two. She can’t work. In my heart I believe God brought me to B. The wonderful thing is B ministers to me as much as I minister to her. That is the other thought; church seems to be like that too. I have a skill and God places me in the right church family for my skill. So my journey takes me to a church, to people who are in need and it also takes me to moments where I have to learn about me. I have learned to love people who don’t like me. I have learned to let go of bad habits that aren’t good for me. For me one of the most profound lessons I am learning is to Agape love people. Agape love is to seek another person’s highest the highest good means a few ‘no’s” sprinkled into the love. As I explore this then I realize the journey does not mean you get to accept Jesus as your Savior and that is that. It does mean you accept Jesus and then you grow. If you are not growing then I would have to question your faith. It seems that God does not want you to accept him and be the same. He will grow you. Sometimes in my journey I go down a wrong road. I will hear God wrong; I will decide to do what I want rather than what God wants. King David comes to mind. He loved God and yet he messed up big time. God sent Nathan the prophet to let David know about David’s transgression. When confronted with his sin David repented. That is a must in your faith journey. You have to admit or confess to God your sin. Admitting my sin was hard for a very long time. I felt beat up enough without telling God about my faults. I resisted and resisted. Finally one day I started confessing. At first I did blanket confessing. I prayed “forgive me for I have sinned.” Then I learned I needed to name my sin. Ouch! I did begin naming my sin and I am ever grateful I did. When I learned that God wasn’t going to beat me up because I sinned, I began to confess. In confessing I learned to “name’ the sin and in the naming the sin I began to let go. God wants me to confess not so he can strong arm me but to help me move beyond it. How is your journey of faith going? May God bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you. Love Janet