Still On The Journey...

"Your trip may be over, but a new journey has begun.

In fact, the second journey may be one of the primary reasons

why God called you to go on the first one."

~ Tim Dearborn ~

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written

in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand

—when I awake, I am still with you. ~Psalm 139:14-18 ~

When I contemplate the quote above along with these truths from God's Word, I am reminded of God's sovereign guidance in my life and His awesome love for me, and those two things are the most important to remember in all the choices, struggles and decisions of life.

I believe that I have struggled with this because I tend to focus on achieving the goal, and I don't always recognize what's taking place on the way to get there. During my 9 months of intensive language study, this was one of the biggest realizations - and it's one of those lessons that I will continue to learn because it applies to ALL areas of life. When I started studying Russian, I often wanted to be able to understand now and my teacher continually reminded me that the comprehension would come as I progressed step by step. I had to learn to rejoice in the process - no matter how slow it seemed - and to recognize what I was learning in the moment instead of looking ahead to what I though was most important.

Since coming back to Canada, I have realized that being able to adequately answer the "why" questions is not the most important thing; rather, it is to be able to identify what God has been and is still teaching me on this journey of following Him.

I started this blog sometime in the summer of 2014, a few months after returning home to Canada, and I did not finish it at that time. In the many months since, God has continually been showing me truths about Him and about myself and has been changing me from the inside out in various ways.

I want to share with you the life-transforming lessons I have been learning on my journey of knowing, loving and following my Lord, but they are too many for just one blog post.

So... I will be writing several entries over the next little while, and I hope that what I share from my heart will be an encouragement and maybe even a challenge for you as well.