Confidence...

Sore muscles...fresh freckles...sun-kissed skin and a few bug bites worn with pride. Confidence comes with every step taken into foreign, yet somewhat familiar territory...pushed out of my comfort zone and into new life, new hope, new beginnings...

I thank God every moment of every day for the grace with which He has placed me, for the belief that with determination and perseverance I can overcome any mountain before me. I take a moment to breathe, to wipe away the sweat from working hard in the sun and take it all in...the beauty of the glass-like surface of the lake arrayed before me, interrupted only by the whopping fish jumping for their meal...the precious quiet, interspersed only by the conversation of my crew of two putting their heads together to problem solve...the uncut and wild forest spreading out across the lake and all round us...and I am humbled, thankful and at peace. No matter the problems, no matter the cares and worries, the fears and anxieties....when I stand before God's creation and stop to take it all in, all falls away to the left and to the right and I am blessed with a beauty, a restfulness, a peace that overcomes, that supersedes all else...and I am content.

We have so very much to be thankful for dear hearts....as I focus on what is good, what is holy, what God has created...I am reminded that we are loved...without conditions, without constraints...unmitigated and ever abiding love... No matter the worries of this world, the fear, the cesspool we may have been thrown into, pushed into...we are loved and there is one who will make a way, for you...for me...a way of escape to a life filled with hope, filled with peace, filled with respect, filled with grace....

I pray for you dear friends that you will find your own unique way up and out of the pit...that you will take the hand extended to you to help pull you free...I pray for courage to accept a true love, a true hope and belief in a better life. You are worthy of all that is good and lovely...do not fear, you are not forgotten, never forgotten or discarded. He sees you, where you are...right this second and His heart weeps for your pain, for your sorrow...He will never give up on you...never, ever dear hearts.

'Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.' Luke 15: 1-7

I thought myself lost in a wilderness with no end...with no escape....

I thought myself forgotten....forever misplaced....

I thought myself unloveable....unreachable....buried under miles of foul, fermenting muck and mildewing filth...

Oh my friends...I am here to tell you today that this is a lie/s....spoken over you, whispered in your ear as scoops of swill and waste are thrown upon you, burying a little deeper until you no longer know up from down and firmly believe yourself lost for good.

I walked out of that wasteland, that wilderness...

I took that hand extended in love, forgiveness and hope and climbed out of the pit to find fresh life....

I would speak truth and tell you that it is not easy, no...wading through and up out of that morass of garbage is not easy....but, with the love a Father, the support of unconditional love and acceptance it is possible...there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is reachable, attainable for each one of you.

Go with God today and every day may His face shine upon you, strengthening you in His grace and might. 'For is God be for us, who can be against us?' Romans 8:31

Lift your face to the skies and breathe in a love that never ends....