Promises, Promises




It is not this way with my God.





You are not Abandonned

alone_child_and_door (Photo credit: Simone Dall’Angelo)

The once joyful, smiling little boy sat by himself in the room.  His tears would not fall anymore though the loneliness, the utter, desperate loneliness was a palpable wave.  It roared over him, surrounded him, crushed him beneath its suffocating weight.  Daddy would not be coming home anymore.


She was a beautiful bride.  Their smiles, their kisses, the warmth and joy they had felt seemed inexhaustible.  Children had blessed their home and life had moved on but there wTas love, so much love.  She had known that things weren’t great, harsh words, tempers, problems.  But it had not prepared her for his words.  “I’m leaving.”  The other woman, the lies, the betrayal sent her reeling into an abyss that had no bottom, the hole she fell into closed also.


The old man lay in bed, a confusion of tubes, beeping monitors and smells that assaulted his senses and further disoriented his feeble hold on reality.  He had been strong.  He had worked hard and provided.  He had been a father, a husband, a friend.  Now, his only companions rolled him over, spoke in harsh tones, complained over his accidents (a humiliation beyond description) and then left him too.  Where was everyone?  Where was God?


I have no answers to these all too common issues.  I could say that Jesus is the answer, which is true.  But it is false, just the same.  “Jesus will take away your pain.  He will heal you.”  True but lying in its intent.  “He will not put you through more than you can bear,” quoted from scripture but so deceitful in real life.  


Lay down your stones.  I am not a heretic.


We make the truths of scripture, of life, a lie when we look at those truths as quick fixes, easy answers.  Jesus does heal but it takes time, and faith.  It is often a process where further pain is revealed.  And what we can bear depends greatly on your perspective.  It is also a function of failure and further attempts, unbearable initially, bearable upon revisitation.  


We want the preacher to give a message that sends us home, patched up, ready to face the world.  We want the show to make us feel better, good again.  We want the miracles, the lottery, the breakthrough that makes our problems go away.  And often they exist to cloud the reality of our journey.


You are not abandoned.  God is there.  Jesus did die to heal you of all your hurts and fears.  But we must walk with Him.  If it takes yelling and cussing, do it.  HE WILL NOT ABANDON YOU!  If it takes opening your heart up again, do it.  HE WILL NOT ABANDON YOU!  You will be hurt again.  You will feel pain.  Feel it.  Know that you are alive.  You are not abandoned.


In the end, and along the way, as you hold on to Him.  You will see that He is good.  His love really does endure forever.  And you were not, are not alone.


Click on the link to check out my book:


The Courthouse

We stand in a court where all are condemned.  We stand before a judge who sees every motive, every flaw, every lie, every pretense.  There is no jury of our peers, no technicality or loophole.  We have no defense for we know as we enter, if we’re truthful with ourselves, that before a Holy, Righteous God, that we will never be good enough.  Our best days, best thoughts, greatest triumphs are written on toilet paper when compared to Him.

But just before the gavel falls, we hear the simple words, “Father, this one is mine.”

It just stops me when I know this truth.  I know I will write, but I sense my unworthiness, how very unfit I am, to attempt to express what this means.

“This one is mine.”

Hebrews talks about Jesus, “Who, for the JOY set before Him, endured the cross…”  Not to go beyond scripture, but we should realize that He endured more than the cross.  He left heaven, the throne room of His Father, to come to earth as a baby.  He endured a life of hard work and discipline under the hand of a human father and mother, where kids could bully Him and tease, the indignity of colds, viruses, disease, and crushed fingers may have touched Him.  But he endured.  He had a goal, a prize to win.

And that prize was us.  Me!  You!

He considered us worth it and He still does.

We go through life wondering where He is in this mess, questioning what He will do to help us through our misery.  We see the hurts of this world and the brokenness that pervades everything human and wonder how long He will allow it.  But these are the wrong questions to ask.

He set us free, released us from a life of condemnation.  The question should be how long are we going to allow the brokenness, the misery.  How long will we wait before we realize that there is an answer to every need, a victory for every defeat.

He cried, “IT IS FINISHED!”  And, for Him, it is.

Serving You (Guest Blog)

English: Green, green grass at Damhead
English: Green, green grass at Damhead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Upon waking, you are what captures my heart, amidst the numerous distractions vying for a moment of my time. Reaching through this menagerie, your love takes me to a place where tall green grass bends softly in the wind. And as my child like innocence runs toward you, dances does my heart at the thought of serving You… this day.  Sharon Brooks

My fellow blogger has such a poetic way of sharing things that I thought I would post this comment for others to see.  It is my honor and joy to serve Jesus with everything that I do.

Does It Matter?

English: The symbol for chemical equilibrium


I think it does.






Consider the Following

People (Photo credit: Viewminder)








Mountain Lake
Mountain Lake (Photo credit: @Doug88888)




Cross & Clouds
Cross & Clouds (Photo credit: John H Wright Photo)







I’m So Amazed

I’m so amazed by your mercy

I’m so amazed by your love

I’m so amazed that you came down on Christmas Day

I’m so amazed by your greatness

That You gave it up for me

I’m so amazed that you came down on Christmas Day

God’s Word that made the stars in the heavens

Became a child one Holy night

Let go His father’s hand

To reach for everyone

So they could finally be alive


There’s more to this but didn’t want to plug my own poetry.


I wanted to write a song to explain what I thought of Jesus and the audacity it took for him to lay aside his position in heaven to rescue us.  I wanted to express, somehow, an appreciation for what we treat with ignorance and contempt so much of the time.  Words are so inadequate.  Our hearts, our minds can’t wrap themselves around what took place.

We are coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Our hearts can be so caught up in trappings, in dealing with family, in buying and preparing, and rushing.  Every year we hear the words, see the movies, read the stories.  Can we forget everything, if only for a few minutes each day, and focus our attention on Jesus, who left it all for us?  Can we take a deep breath and listen for His voice, His heart?


Thank You daddy for the words and melody for a song.  Thank you so much more for what can’t be explained.  Thank You Jesus.  My Hero, my King.

English: "Do you recognize Jesus?" i...
English: “Do you recognize Jesus?” is a collage that I made from oil pastel portraits which I drew in Chicago in the summer and fall of 2010. It can be folded in three and used as a Christmas card. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)