His Beautiful Mess

I love this photo. It was taken on a road trip coming from the beautiful mountains in Canada in route back to my home in Montana where I lived at the time. It was a perfect day. Driving through the winding mountain roads, laughing with friends. These were little glimpses of heaven to me. If I could sum up a moment of pure joy, this would be it. I love days like that and the gift they are. But I find that it's days where I've despaired of life that I can sense the Lord drawing me into deeper places with Him. When Hosea 2:14 is my anthem of the Lord taking me into the wilderness to turn my heartbreak valley into acres of hope. He has shown me over the years that He is the fulfillment of all that is lacking in my life, "for where else could I go, He alone has the words of true life". (John 6:68) I remember the days when I sat out by a dumpster all alone to eat on my lunch break and then fast forward to the days I now have amazing coworkers who I get to call frie...

I'm in a season where I've lived a little life but still have a long journey ahead. I see people in my life farther down the road that I aspire to be like. I have questions like how have you stayed faithful to the call on your life for 40 years? How do you continue to fight for your spouse day after day, especially on days when you don't feel like it? How do you trust God when things are out of your control and the situation looks hopeless? It could seem like the answers to these questions should be quite complex but what I have been learning is that the answer is simple: abide in Jesus. What does abide mean?  : to endure without yield, to remain stable, fixed, to continue in a place and pay the price, to remain steadfast and faithful So how does one abide day after day? It's easy on days when the spotlight is on you, when the breakthrough comes, and when circumstances seem to go your way. But to abide means to remain steadfast through each and every day. On ...