Another new journal, another new chapter. Each one brings more than I could have ever anticipated, although never quite what I expected. This journal we bought in Black Mountain, NC during The Great Marriage Getaway weekend at Ridgecrest. (If you want more info on this marriage getaway weekend, contact us!) I knew when I saw it on the shelf that it would hold a very special part of the story although I cannot begin to guess what that will be. I can only imagine reading this beginning page again months from now and getting to say, 'oh Lord, I had no idea all that you were about to do!" Oh the hope I feel for all that is to come!
And yet as I began my prayer time this morning, on my face my forehead pressed into the carpet on our prayer room floor, I was thinking that even if this is the very last page I ever write, what an amazing journey it has been! I think back to my very first quiet time at our house on Miles Road in Columbia, SC almost 12 years ago, when I was desperate for something more. I was the only one in my family who had given my heart to Jesus. I was walking (or rather stumbling very clumsily) along on this journey of faith seemingly alone. I remember that first quiet time, partly because I wrote it down in my first-ever journal and because that day changed my life. That was the beginning of my friendship, my deepening love relationship, with my Heavenly Father. Since that day, I have seen my family members, one-by-one, over time, find Jesus. I have seen lives transformed before my eyes. I have had my broken-down marriage rebuilt and grow in love, trust and passion. It is amazing how that one decision, the decision to spend a daily time in prayer and God's word, changed everything in my marriage (but more on that to come).
I realize that as much hope as I have for the story that will be written on these pages in the days and months to come, the story I have lived up to this point is already enough. It is all so much more than enough. Jesus, You are MORE than enough! The time I have spent with You in my secret place is enough and yet, oh the JOY to know that there is an eternity still to come! I get to spend an eternity more of days in the Presence of Jesus! If you have tasted of even a moment in His presence, then you know a deep, unquenchable longing for eternity with Him. I have known more than a few moments and I have felt rivers of grace flood my broken heart and life. Grace washes over us like waves on the shore and I want to be lost in the ocean of His love forever.
"From His fullness we have all received Grace upon Grace"
John 1:16