“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them”
Matthew 18:19-20
I have just recently returned home from a trip to Haiti, what a beautiful place. Most will find this next statement that I am about to make odd, but I HAVE to say it. The beauty is not just in the people, but in the trash, the smoke from burning trash, the close to dried up rivers where they wash their clothing, the charcoal piles in the middle of the streets, it’s just everywhere! I see God in ALL of it and being there reminds me of where God has brought me from and the work He’s still doing. There is hope!
Each time I join a trip to Haiti I think there is no possible way that God can show me something different or more special than He has in the years past. But once again He has done it. This year He woke me up every morning at 5:30. Yes, 5:30 and I wouldn’t change that time for anything, especially since I had the honor of walking with Linda each and every morning. In the hour that we walked we prayed, we cried and we challenged each other.
One morning as we walked, prayed and cried, I was challenged to write my story. Instantly fear struck my heart. I think I looked at her with a look of you can’t be serious. Then came the excuses. All of the reasons why sharing my story wouldn’t be a good idea. Things like no one would want to read it, I’m not a writer, my story is really kind of boring and the list goes on.
The truth of the matter is, writing my story brings so many things to the surface that I am literally full of fear. I keep thinking of the things that I have gone through, things that have been done to me, things that I have done, the loss that my family and I have endured, but what I so often forget is the the beauty that God created in all of the mess that is my story. And when I think of that beauty I can’t think of a single reason why I wouldn’t want to write it!
I believe that God is nudging me to write my story, to again put my toes in the water, even though writing it could potentially make things with my family worse. I ask for prayer. Pray that I don’t allow fear to take away the joy that has been given to me to share. Pray that God is glorified through ALL of this, but most of all pray that whoever reads my story sees the beauty God can make from the “trash” of their life.
