Author | Steve

God is good. He is love, pure and unstained. He is power, beyond all measure. He is wisdom, beyond our knowing – yet making Himself known to us. This, if nothing else, is the message I long to share with people, not just in words, but in trust-filled daily living. Not that I’m awesome at this. I’m a hard nut to crack! But, Jesus is remaking me in His perfect time.

I’m a hard nut to crack! But, Jesus is remaking me in His perfect time.

It has been nearly two months since the Lord has moved me to write anything for anyone besides my own personal conversation with Him or within my immediate family. Much has happened in those two months. We traveled over 9,000 miles through 17 states (with Jamie and Gabby making a “side trip” to Uganda). There are a plethora of stories of grace, of learning things the hard way, of more grace, and of beautiful relationships given as gifts by God’s own hand. It’s hard to even know what to share from the manifold discoveries and blessings of the last two months.

So…God is good. He is love. He is power. He is wisdom. And He is shepherding me and my family toward Himself and a breath-taking, beyond-our-imagination, forever-future with Him. At the same time, He is inviting us to daily trust Him, receive His gifts, and bubble over with His light and love in this world. This good news is what fuels our living…and our dying to the things that seek to separate us from His light.

This good news is what fuels our living…and our dying to the things that seek to separate us from His light.

And so, I’m ready to write again.

For the past month, we have been sweating and laboring to make a home in Tomball, Texas for the foreseeable future. Jamie’s sister and husband have been so gracious to allow us to live in a house they own less than a mile from where they live. It was in a state of disrepair, so in exchange, we are putting a lot of blood, sweat and a few tears into it. We would covet your prayers as we seek to follow Jesus and live out of the freedom of His grace. Here are some things He has laid upon our hearts and is inviting us toward that you can join us in praying about:

Life lived out of confession and forgiveness.

This has been one of our most transformative discoveries! God’s Spirit has shown us the power of regularly confessing and forgiving each other in our family. Honestly, it has been a very jerky, starting, stopping, halting journey. But the fruit has been obvious and good. Please join us in praying that Jesus would continue to break down our walls we construct to try to protect ourselves, and instead give us courage to be vulnerable with each other that we would be healed.

Life attentive and attuned to the Spirit’s leading…and providing.

For two first-born, uber-planners, God has done a complete make-over of us in this area! It has thrown our families for a bit of a loop. This was really hard at first! But more and more we get to be surprised by God’s grace and providence when we don’t have everything scripted out to the “T”. I’m still struggling with getting too focused on “projects” that cause me to miss relationships and people and gospel opportunities. Please pray for growth in this area. As a family, we are sensing God opening up some great opportunities for mutual encouragement in our immediate community. Please pray that we would be attentive to this and courageous to follow Him wherever He leads.

Life lived close.

For so many years, I unwittingly followed the American ideal of bigger, better, faster, more. Whether it was gadgets, my work, my house – progress was bigger, better, faster, more. The thing was, the fruit of this “ideal” was leaving me progressively more alone and more exhausted. I have to admit, what we are doing now started off as a bit of an experiment. But the fruit of this “living close” has been nothing short of amazing! We have moved into a 550 sq ft house. The kids share one room, Jamie and I another that connects directly to theirs. What has taken place is not insanity (as one might suppose), but bonding, confession & forgiveness, patience (and fighting…but we had that before too, and people would just stomp off to their room instead of actually working through it). I want to be really careful to not condemn people who live with more. Money is not evil – only the love of money. What we have discovered is that less stuff and less room is allowing us to know each other and love each other better than we did before. For us, this shift has been a tremendous gift! We feel God inviting us to apply this to our local community as well. Please join us in praying that Jesus will show us what that looks like and to be attentive to our neighbors.

Work.

There is a whole new relationship to this that God is forming inside of me. He is dismantling my strong tendency toward bearing burdens and responsibilities that are not mine to bear. This has messed up my relationship with work in the past. Currently, most of my work is physical labor, building things for the house. This can cause cussing (which then leads to confession)! Actually, it has been great for me to have to learn a lot of new things, not to mention it has been good on my waistline! God has also opened doors for Jamie and me to share God’s promises with people through teaching and speaking. Sometimes we receive funds for this and sometimes we don’t, but we always receive blessings. I love this relationship to sharing the gospel of Jesus! It has reformulated how I do it and how I feel about how I do it. So far, God has taken care of every need…and not a few wants, too! I’m sure a day will come in the not too distant future when I will need to “get a job” to support our living, but right now He continues to give us meaningful work and take care of our needs. Please join us in praying that we trust Him and follow Him in both of these areas: the work of our minds and hands and provision for our living, no matter how crazy or unconventional it may look.

God is good. Our prayer is that you know that too. If you are ever in the vicinity of Tomball, Texas give us a shout. We’d love to visit under the shade of our sycamore tree and hear what Jesus is doing in your life and encourage each other over a game of washers and some yummy concoction Gabby has dreamed up!

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.

~ Psalm 125:1-2