This Day!

In the past I have seen failure.
Not this day!

In the past fear has kept me in bondage
Not this day!

In the past I have played it safe
Not this day!

This day I will succeed!
This day I will live with courage!
This day I will risk it all for victory!

This day is all I have
The past behind me
The future before me
I hold today in my hands!

This day I chose Love
This day I chose Hope
This day I chose LIFE!

THIS DAY!
THIS DAY!
THIS DAY!


It can be so easy to live in the past or worry about the future that we miss the gift that today is. We can not go back to what is behind us but we can move forward. We can take today for the gift that it is. Today we have the opportunity to start over. To love where we have held back. To risk where we have played it safe. To engage and not hide. To let the glory that is in our hearts out so that we can be a light for others. I pray that you will use this day for all that you can. That you will allow God to use you this day to reach a broken and dieing world. This Day is the Day!

Tom

Being Intentional

For the past year I have been in counseling trying to work through some areas of my life that have held me back for a long time. It has been a really tough year. At times it has seemed like I was really moving forward and other times it seamed no progress had been made at all. Although the holidays are a great time they also tend to bring up a lot of the pain and hurt that are in your life. As I was meeting with my counselor Mike and going over a list of things that I am still struggling to get a hold of, at the end it really came down to being intentional about moving forward. This does not mean I minimize the issues or ignore them but I do have a choice to stay in the same place and lament my life or I can ruthlessly pursue wholeness and move forward. Now a lot of you your probably going " well duh" and it's not the first time I have been told that either but this time it seemed to click. Yes I have some deep hurts in my life that I need God to heal and he is but I am part of the process to. The neat thing is is that God respects me enough that he allows me to take part in the process of healing. There are things I can do each day that will draw me closer to the healing that God has for me. So what does it mean to be intentional? It means taking the steps that are needed to grow and to remove the crutches and distractions that allow me to ignore the pain. You see the way to healing involves going through the pain and not around it. It means that I don't use food, TV, music or any other thing to deaden the pain or make me forget it. I leave myself no escape from it and allow God to walk with me through the pain. If I am rambling please forgive me but since I don't know who will read this I want to make sure that this gets out. The second thing I know is that I can not do this alone. It is so tempting sometimes to want to hide the pain from others but that just makes it worse. I must and so must you allow others into your life, your pain and into your struggles. It is in a fellowship of committed friends and family that God loves to work. So for all of you who are in a place of pain or just feeling dead to your heart I want to encourage you to move towards God today, stop running from the pain and face it head on. Get a councilor who can help you understand what going on and then embrace life again. That my goal and I will finish this race. For myself, my family and the fellowship of friends that are walking with me through this. More to come.
Tom