journey onWord with us

Tomorrow will be a special day for me, my wife and our friends, Mark and Tom. It is the anniversary of the day five years ago when we had a brief airport encounter that was the start of Journey onWord. By God’s grace, that encounter was the beginning of 540 articles to-date. Just today, people read the articles from as far away as Singapore, Brazil, India and Italy. Our ministry is designed to encourage and move people toward the Word. We certainly want to give praise to God for His grace and guidance for the last five years. We thought it would be interesting to go back to the beginning and share articles that were read by very few. For a few weeks we will weave them around the words of Jesus.  So from 2009 …

Honesty would declare that I struggle with selfishness, and spend far too much time frustrated over “my failures.”  It wouldn’t surprise me if you faced some of those same struggles yourself.  And you may even relate to what a friend of mine expressed recently. After a bout with anger, he stated, “I can’t believe I did that”.

Each one of our lives is littered with moments we wish we could take back.  God understands those moments, and meets us with open arms when we come to Him with our failures.  But we so often get in the way, choosing to focus on regret and what was not accomplished, instead of embracing and accepting the boundless grace He so freely offers.

As we approach the homestretch on another year, embrace your weakness and accept insight from author Brennan Manning.  He shares in his book, “The Ragamuffin Gospel”, a prayer one morning, in which he felt he heard a word from the Lord:

Little brother, I witnessed a Peter who claimed that he did not know me, a James who wanted power in return for service to the kingdom, a Philip who failed to see the Father in Me, and scores of disciples who were convinced I was finished at Calvary. The New Testament has many examples of men and women who started out well and then faltered along the way. Yet on Easter night I appeared to Peter. James is not remembered for his ambition but for the sacrifice of his life for me. Philip did see the Father in Me when I pointed the way, and the disciples who despaired had enough courage to recognize Me when we broke bread at the end of the road to Emmaus. My point, little brother, is this: I expect more failure from you than you expect from yourself.

You and I will fail today, of that you can be certain.  But we can be even more certain of the truth that the Father will not stop loving us.  Choose this week to run the risk of failure with a fully devoted heart. As the words above inferred, men like Peter, James and Philip weren’t perfect, but oh how God used them. In Christ, there is a purpose for you and I to play for kingdom good. Along the way we will fail, but a greater failure would be to not live passionately for the Savior.

So partner with me and embrace your weaknesses, risk failure (remember He already knows we will), and be a conduit of His grace.  There is someone in your life today that could use a word of encouragement.  Risk failing and reach out.

II Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions,
in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Accept your weakness, embrace grace, and forget regret!