the unexpected journey: 2016

Happy New Year! We awakened this morning to gloomy rainy wintry weather. What a “wonderful start to the new year,” I thought. I headed to the kitchen to put the coffee on and talk with my wife about the day. Not long into our conversation came some news that shocked us. Less than 12-hours into the New Year, we were approached with the possibility of renting a house. The story will take time to unfold, but the suddenness with which this has happened causes me to wonder. It was only hours earlier that I posted three areas of challenge facing us in our 2016 journey. Within hours of posting that I am posting the potential of one of those challenges being taken care of! Could this be a sign of things to come this year? Is it possible that the “suddenly” that is spoken about throughout the Bible will be the benchmark of 2016? Time will tell; but what I can say is that it lends itself to building a strong case for developing a close personal relationship with the godhead. Let me explain. Hopefully you will recall from the previous post that the question that dominated my thinking (when I heard the news about finding a place to live) was how am I supposed to feel about this? What I didn’t tell you is that I had a strong sense that it would be taken care of quickly. I was not able to process this with my logic because there was no logical explanation that would support it. It is important to understand that I have come to accept that kind of “sensing” to be the Holy Spirit comforting me about a situation we are facing. In fact during another recent matter I heard the voice of the Father say, “I’ve got this,” and sure enough it was well taken care of. The point of saying anything about this is to give you an experiential account of someone walking this out on a daily basis in real life matters. These are not stories that have been passed down for generations meant to encourage us. These are true daily experiences that happen to one very ordinary person who has simply made a commitment to live—with his family—in communion with the godhead—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I live in the same world, deal with the same stresses, and have to make decisions based on the limited information that everyone else does. Gone for me are the days when I could spend hours upon hours locked away in a secluded place praying and fasting to hear the voice of God. Gone are the countless hours of studying and researching the scriptures and historical texts to discern what a portion of scripture meant. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with such a luxury. In many ways I miss that, but I can still draw close to the godhead without all of that. I can—and do—still spend time with him. I can—and do—sense his presence or hear his voice in my daily life. That is the point. We have sweet communion while driving to and from places. We talk throughout the day—many times it seems like a monologue—about things that are of concern. All of this happens far away from the traditional church setting that has come to depict such closeness. Once again, this is not an indictment on the traditional church or those who sit in prominent places within it. This is simply the reality of one who once lived their, but now lives outside that environment—without speaking negatively about it—in communion with the godhead. My heart’s desire in this is to stress the fact that if I can do it, anyone can! May the journey of 2016 be filled with wondered amazement at faithfulness of our God and king.