Before the Beginning

Before the year 2013 begins in earnest and leaves 2012 in the dust, I want to remember...  I want to remember the richness of Christmas, the love of my family, God's sovereignty in trials.  This is a kind of remembering, not of looking back and saying 'if onlys', but of recalling past graces to fuel faith for tomorrow.  As planning, preparing, and work begin very soon, accompanied with their own fears and joys, I need to remember these past graces; I need Jesus; I need to remember He is with me.

Thank You, Father, for my many dear friends and supporters I saw while I was in Topeka.  Their faithfulness to pray and care - though many miles separate us - overwhelms me.

Thank You for those few You have put especially near my heart who I call 'family'.  I enjoyed beyond description the laughter, stories, songs, prayers, and togetherness we shared.

Thank You for the sights you give me to enjoy - sunrises with colors I don't know, hawks that rise on the currents of the wind, snowflakes each with their own shape, stars of a number I can't fathom - they sing Your praises.

Thank You for Your truth spoken to me, heard and discussed with students, through speakers who model weakness.

Thank You for using me not despite my afflictions, but because of them and through them, that You receive the honor.

Thank You, Father, for the love you lavish on me by calling me Your own.

When I think of the Midwest - unimaginable blueness and expansiveness 

With the world's most creative and hilarious - yet undiscovered - story-teller

The sun greeting me the first morning at Conference in Jacksonville