Shannon’s first attempt at Blogging

As I lay awake at 3 am this morning and I am contemplating all that is happening in my family’s lives right now. I am so forgetful of what He has brought me/us through. I awake refreshed from some additional sleep after solving all of my problems in my head. Hahahaha. I am reminded this morning/ by social media, that just three short years ago I was preparing to move my family (my wife, two teenage children and myself) to Cambodia for 6 months and how terrified we were at the time. It is how God uses the odd things in life to remind us how big He is and soon we forget his protection. Later today, after wrestling with the lawnmower that hasn’t been operated in several years, I finally get it going after removing the carburetor three times and thinking each time I have got it fixed. After the third time I did get it going with a screwdriver jammed in the carb to keep the choke open so it would run (that is “missionary” fixed). I was thinking while mowing because that is what people do when they mow. I thought of how God is taking us through chapters in our life. Sometimes our lives read like a love story out of a Hallmark movie and sometimes it reads like Forrest Gump stumbling into everything and coming out better for it. And then there are chapters that just don’t fit any movie. The chapters I have learned the most from in my life are the ones that are difficult and long. Chapters of repeated headaches for a two year period that eventually I was hospitalized to break the cycle. Or times when things didn’t go as we planned and we had to walk closer to God than we ever have. Those are the chapters that we would like to forget but those are the chapters that we need to remember more than the others. You see we don’t see our lives as we see a good book. We can’t wait for the next chapter of a good book but in our lives sometimes we are afraid of the next chapter. Why is that? We already know the last chapter and we win!  We still like for the next chapter of our lives to be just like the chapter we are currently reading/living. I constantly remind myself that fear is of the flesh not of God. He gives us opportunities if we take them to do amazing things for Him. We restrict God from doing amazing things in our lives because we want the safe and comfortable.We want every chapter to be easy, well planned preferably at 72 degrees and sunny. This is where we are the least effective, we tend to stay within our own circle of friends and never venture out into the real world that needs us. I am with you I like comfortable I like comfort food I like staying at home with my family and chilling. You see I is used several times in that previous sentence and that is where we can get if we don’t seek him every day, focusing on ourselves and our wants. So back to mowing the yard. I am listening to Need to Breathe getting all spiritual talking to the Lord and all while I am mowing and out of nowhere my phone starts ringing. I am like, “who am I calling?” Before I get my phone out of my pocket I hear 911 operator, “what is your emergency?”  OH MY, OH MY!!!!! Yea for real I called 911 with my leg while mowing (SKILLS). Well after explaining to them that I just moved into this house and i was unsure of the address and I had to walk to the street corner to see the street name and house number to keep them from coming and all, I had a come back to earth moment like I have never had before.

In closing you see God uses everything for His glory, and everywhere we go, He goes before us. As I look back at the headaches and the fear of moving to Cambodia in the past and everything He has brought me through the past 32 years of serving him I can say, everything is preparation for the next chapter and that chapter is going to be awesome, because He is!