I've been trying to think of something new to write about for awhile now, but I don't want to write about the same things over and over again. I probably would be okay with this if what I felt compelled to write about was something other than the blessings in my life. I am the last person in the world who would write about how blessed his life is. Not because I am not blessed, but the contrary, I am extremely blessed. I just don't believe that everything is always going to work out perfectly or I don't believe that if things don't work out it's because we don't have enough faith in God. In chapter 11 of Hebrews there is quite the list of people who had great faith and followed God's plan. However if we look at verses 36 through 38 we see what some of them faced and I would venture to say most of us would not consider these things blessings. Verses 36 through 38 says, Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. It's pretty clear then that if we follow God's plan for our lives we won't always escape death, become powerful, be wealthy, or conquer all evil that comes our way. Faith in God does not equal a life free from suffering. We even find Paul in Acts 14:22 returning to the places he went during his first missionary journey and teaching the new disciples, “...We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God...” This life of following Jesus is not about convenience. When Jesus entered the world it wasn't for convenience. Mary wasn't convenience d when she first found out she would be pregnant, Joseph wasn't convenience d when he found out his wife to be was having a child, Herod wasn't convenience d that a new king was going to be born, and on and on. Jesus' life was not about the convenience of mankind. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of things throughout Jesus' birth, life, and death that we can take comfort in, but he didn't come, live, and die for us to live a convenient worry free life. We must ask ourselves, Did Jesus die a humiliating death for the life I am living today? With all that being said I feel compelled to write about some of the ways God has blessed my family and me over the last year, so don't be surprised if you see repetitive post or what seems like the same things over and over again.
