Nothing is Wasted

 

 

It was a pile of scrap pieces of old plumbing fixtures that rested at the bottom of the box and the plan was to throw them away. After all, it was clutter and it needed to be gone, but somewhere between where the box was picked up and the dumpster something extraordinary happened.

An old and busted cork board was scrounged up and squares were crudely drawn. The pieces were sorted through and fitted together into seemingly odd shapes and sizes and when it was all said and done, a very unique and beautiful chess set was created.

I could not help but think as I began to play a game on what was once a dumpster bound cork board about how incredible it was that these broken up pieces had been re-purposed and now had an entirely different destiny than anyone else would have thought.

You have to remember that I am an artist so a creation like this deserves a name. This piece was not created to just be a chess set, it was created to "Speak" to everyone that would ever see it. It was designed to convey a message from the Father because you and I are no different than the pieces that were used in the building of this re-purposed set.

We are all given a task and were created to convey a message. Sometimes in the process of life, between the store shelf and the dumpster so to speak, something happens to us.

Perhaps we get broken or misused or become no longer usable in the fashion that we ourselves or others think us to be. A decision is made, an uncomfortable conversation takes place, angry words are exchanged, dreams are dashed, hopes are unfulfilled and we find ourselves feeling worthless and dumpster bound.

I found some old metal letters from an engraver that had long since been removed from use and named this piece "Nothing is Wasted".

 

As I mentioned earlier, a similar scenario took place many years before this set was created.

 

"After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No." ~ John 21:1-5

 

The time is after the crucifixion and the place is anywhere but where they were supposed to be. The boat they were in was similar to the cardboard box I mentioned earlier. It contained the broken hearts and fragments of what used to be the strong and confident disciples.

 

Jesus had been crucified, and they had skipped town to hide. This was not news to Jesus because He had even told them Himself that they would desert Him in His hour of capture. One of the disciples had loudly bragged that he would never leave Jesus' side and yet he was the same disciple that cursed Jesus and encouraged the others to join him in the cardboard box as it sailed on a sea of regret to a dumpster of wounded souls.

 

Peter.

 

Peter who pledged his undying allegiance was the first to break ranks. Is it a wonder that the pieces of this once useful disciple were found in the box?

 

I love this passage in Mark. It brings tears to my eyes to see, because of how powerful it is. Jesus has ressurected and meets some of His followers and gives them prescise instructions.

 

"But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you." ~ Mark 16:7

 

WOW!!! Did you see it?

 

Look again please! "But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter ..."

 

Do not forget to tell Peter!!! You are not broken beyond repair and your life of use is nowhere near finished!!!

 

Peter, you may feel as though you are broken beyond repair and that you have let me down so much.

 

Don't you love the fact that there is never at any time been a moment that you have ever held God up?

 

You can only let down something that you hold up. You would be amazed at the places that God goes in order to be with us. God had a plan for Peter's broken pieces and He created something with Peter that the rest of the world stood back and said "Wow! That is really amazing!"

 

It was pieces that God used. Fragments.

 

Odds and ends of a broken heart. Shards of a purpose that had been broken into a million pieces. Cracked egos, severed emotions, and dreams that have been so disfigured that they seem to no longer be recognizable.

 

These are The Creators materials that He selects in order to build His Kingdom.

 

 

The Disciples discover that the man calling out to them from the shoreline was in fact the one who years before called out to them from the shoreline. It is Jesus and they race toward the beach as fast as they can and look what they see when they get there.

 

"As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread." ~ John 21:9

So, why fish and bread? have you ever wondered that?

I can see them sitting around Him once again, overwhelmed by His presence and the love that is given to them. And then which one was the first to connect the dots as they took a bite into the meal?

Bread and fish. When did we last share a meal like this with Jesus?

It was on a hillside with companies of people that numbered in the thousands. They did not have enough food and the money bag was light.

What was it Jesus asked for? 

Wait, it was a little boy that approached Andrew with a lunch that was five loaves of bread and two fish.
Can you see them chewing that meal slowly by the fire on the beach that morning with Jesus as their minds went back to that day on the hillside?

Jesus took the lunch and blessed it and broke it and began to pass out food to the multitude and when it was all done, and everyone was full, they gathered up seven baskets full because Jesus said, "Gather the fragments that remain that nothing may be lost..."

The meal was, in my opinion, a reminder to these fragmented men that with Jesus, "NOTHING IS WASTED".

A re-purposed chess set or a restored human being, the picture is simplistically powerful. I wanted the piece to speak to everyone who had eyes to see it.

This chess set was a message from the Saviour to the broken, misused, worn out and rejected. With Me, "Nothing is Wasted".

There are really only two types of people in the world today. People who are broken and people who are repaired, and if you are repaired, then at one time, you were in fact broken.

 

If you feel as though you are in the box of broken and wasted and on your way toward the dumpster, you are in the perfect place to see the Creator at work. Cry out to Him and see what He has in store for you.

 

Climbing with you,

~Dan 

 

 

 

Why The Wilderness Is Never A Waste

I was reading and doing some meditating on a passage of scripture as I am finishing up this new 90 day devotional that I am putting together and I came across a passage that truly rocked my socks.

It was in a very unlikely place that I would have gone to for a passage to put in the devotional, but what stood out to me was absolutely beautiful! Don't you just love it when God uses something that seems so ordinary to speak so loudly?

Before I take you to the passage, I would like to share with you a definition that comes from dictionary.com. The definition is for the word WILDERNESS.

wilderness

/ˈwɪldənɪs/

noun

1. a wild, uninhabited, and uncultivated region  

                 

2.any desolate tract or area        

           

3. a confused mass or collection

                   

4. a voice in the wilderness, a voice crying in the wilderness, a person, group, etc, making a suggestion or plea that is ignored       

            

5. in the wilderness, no longer having influence, recognition, or publicity

 

In the scripture analogies, a wilderness is often always associated with a bad thing. By definition, it is a place of desolation.

The children of Israel wandered in a wilderness because of their disobedience to God in taking refusing to take ownership of the promised land. Moses wandered the wilderness after killing an Egyptian, and when you hear people talk about the "Wasted years" of their life it is often referred to a time of wilderness wandering. It is a time where you don't seem to be accomplishing anything productive in comparison to what you could accomplish if you had a fixed purpose or destination to reach.
It seems to be the same thing as wasted time. It is a place of idleness and desolation, and it is a place of regret and waste.

 

I have experienced wilderness seasons of life spiritually and over the last several years Father has been teaching me to understand these times in a better light.

 

Let me show you a powerful passage that Father showed me this past week.

 

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee." ~Song of Solomon 8:5

 

I love this passage!!!

 

The story of the Song of Solomon is one of the most beautiful that I have ever read and when God began to open things up to me within that book I knew that He wanted me to write the devotional entirely from this book. It speaks of a different love than most of us feel that God has for us and it has been absolutely transformational for me in the process of putting this together.

 

The story is between a shepherd girl and a king but it also symbolizes Christ and His church (You and me).

 

In earlier passages we find this girl leaving on a search and finding the King, but here she is returning to where she was from AFTER she has met the King.

 

She is walking out of the wilderness and she is not the same person that went into the wilderness. 

 

She went into the wilderness as a Shepherd girl of commonality and emerges from the wilderness as queen of royalty. 

 

She went into the wilderness alone with only what she did as her source of identity, just a shepherd girl. She comes out of the wilderness with a companion and a new identity that has been established because of the relationship that she now has with her companion.   

 

She went into the wilderness relying on herself and emerged now leaning in dependence upon the King.

 

She went into the wilderness as she was and emerged as what she was meant to be.

I guess I wanted to write this post because I believe that there is someone who will read this that has been hung up for YEARS on the idea that they have wasted much of their life before Christ and those feelings have kept them from understanding the value of what they had in the wilderness.

 

You look at the understanding and level of relationship that you have with God now, and look back at regret that you could not give those "wilderness" years to Him and have enjoyed back then what you have with Him now. You get angry and intolerant of people that bypass your "Bridge out" sign and you tend to easily write them off because they are wasting their time at the same empty wells that you went to at one point in time in your search for THE WATER.

Please understand that I hurt for people who bypass a "Bridge out" sign only to discover a dry well and I will continue to speak out about the emptiness of those wells, but I also see the value in it.

 

Please understand that your wilderness was what you needed to direct you to THE KING.

 

It was in your wilderness that you are able to learn your identity. Wilderness wandering times in the lives of those we love are frustrating for sure because we want to spare them hurt, frustration and pain, however it is only in this wilderness time that we can discover our need of a lasting source.

I love how this girl went into the wilderness on her own steam. It was a picture of self reliance to the max and when she emerges, it is with display of her total dependence on the King. She leaned on Him.

 

If you read earlier in the story, she says, "I went looking for grapes, almonds and pomegranates." She went out looking for things to satisfy herself and then she says, "My desire led me to the chariot of a noble man".

I LOVE it!!!
If you could put it into our terms it could easily sound like this, "I went out in search of security, intimacy and significance. I looked for those things in people places and things, and my desire for those things ended up leading me to a place of emptiness. In that emptiness I found THE KING!"

I don't encourage anyone to wander in a wilderness, but if they are, they have a tremendous opportunity to find God!

"Well Dan, what am I supposed to do when someone that I love seems hell-bent on leaving out into a wilderness in life in search of fulfillment and identity?"

You love them.

What??? Well, what if they never come back to what they have been taught is right?

You love them and you let them know that no matter how far that they go out in search, your light is on for them. Let God be God and let Him prove just how big that He is.

I think of the Wilderness wanderings in my life and I think of this story that I heard awhile back.

After a heated fight between a father and a son erupted, the son chose to pack some clothes and leave his father and mother. After being gone for several years, the boy missed his parents and his home as his anger ebbed away. Finally he knew he should go home. Waiting for his train, he began to fear that maybe his dad didn't want him home. He ran to a pay phone and called home. His mom answered and was flooded with relief when she heard her son's voice. She quickly begged him to come home. He explained that he had already bought a ticket but was afraid that his father didn't want him home, so he asked his mother: "Mom, can you guarantee dad wants me to come home?" The mom was silent for a moment and when the boy asked why she was so quiet the mom said, "Son, your dad is a changed man since the day you left. He hardly speaks anymore -- even to me, and you know how close we are. He never smiles or laughs. He simply goes to work, comes home, broods over dinner, watches TV then goes to bed. On the weekends he sits by his workbench in the garage all alone.
"But mom," the son said, "Does he want me to home? I'm not coming home if I'm not wanted. Mom, what do you say, my train is here and I need to board?" "I can't give that guarantee son, your father won't talk to me, just please come home," pleaded the mom. "I gotta know, mom. Can you give me the guarantee?" "Son, I just don't know about a guarantee." The boy then got an idea. "Mom, he said, "tell dad I'm on the train and I want to come home. Tell him the train will run on the tracks that go behind the back of your property. If he wants me to come home, tell him to hang a white handkerchief from a branch of that old dead apple tree we were going to chop down that's out by the tracks. If I see a handkerchief, I know I can come home; if there isn't one, I'll know I'm not wanted and I'll keep going on the train. Mom, I gotta go. Tell dad what I said. Bye Mom." The boy hung up and jumped on the train. He entered a train car that was filled with strangers. He sat by a window next to an older, stately-looking man, but he kept to himself staring out the window. Finally the older man nudged the boy and said, "Son, it's obvious you have something on your mind. I'll leave you be if you want, but sometimes it helps to talk over your troubles. I've been told I'm a good listener."
The boy looked at the face of the kind stranger and began to tell his story. The boy told of his fight with his father, how he had left home years ago, and how now he wanted to go home. He told of calling his mom and how she was to let the father know the boy was on the train and that if he was welcome, to tie a white handkerchief on the branch of that old dead apple tree. Then up ahead he saw the last bend before the train would run along the back of his parents' property. He pointed the bend out to the stranger, then buried his face in his hands, and doubled over with crying, too afraid to look what was or was not on the tree. The boy felt the train make the bend. He asked the stranger if he would please look out the window and tell him if the handkerchief was there or not as he could not bear the idea of it not being there. The stranger agreed to look out the windows on his side as was asked and could see that they were approaching the apple tree. The boy was hoping that the stranger would yell, "There it is!" or "Hurray!" or "Look at it!" but instead there was simply an audible gasp. The boy knew it must be bad news so he cried harder.
"Is it there mister?"  the boy chocked out, "Is the handkerchief there?"

"Oh no son", the stranger wept. "I don't see a single handkerchief hanging in that tree. There are so many handkerchiefs hanging in that old tree that it looks like it is snowing outside!!!"
The boy sat up and pulled away his hands, and looking out the window as the train passed the apple tree, he saw the most beautiful display of forgiveness and love than he could ever contain. There was an older version of himself standing there with an silver haired woman and they were waving a large white sheet between the two of them! The message was oh so clear. The dad was saying, "Please come home! You are welcome to come home! I need you home. I want you to come home!"
I tell you that to tell you this: Our Father in heaven welcomes us to His home. Oh, He doesn't hang a handkerchief from an apple tree, but His Son Jesus hung on a tree called the cross that reconciled us again to the Father. And it wasn't white flapping in the breeze, it was red. Jesus' red blood flowed, cleansing us of all of our sins. The message is unmistakable; we are welcome again into the family of God, because Jesus' sacrifice makes it so. God, our Father, is welcoming us home. He's giving us eternal life in heaven. He wants us home with Him.

Please understand that I do not encourage anyone to make a wilderness wandering, but if someone you love is out there searching every empty well that they can find, Can I encourage you to love them and pray that Father will bring them to an awareness of Himself. You cannot make anyone find what they are looking for, but you can be there for them when they do!

Climbing with you,
~Dan

 

Deadlier Than Kryptonite

In last weeks post "Always Look Again" (Click Here), you and I went on a trip to the local comic book store together and we made a fantastic find!

Today I would like to share with you, the best find yet! I am so glad that God's voice is so big and powerful that He can speak through a burning bush, or a comic book. He is absolutely AMAZING!!!!!

It is no secret that I am a Superman fanatic! I have an entire "Man Cave" filled floor to ceiling with Superman artifacts and in the neighborhood of 3,000 comic books which the majority would be Superman titles. I am kind of a "fan" you might say.

 

I don't follow sports and I don't hunt. I'm not opposed to any of it, but the whole comic book scene is a hobby that I really do enjoy and as I stated in the previous blog post, I have loved it since I was first introduced to it as a child.

Superman is and always has been my favorite superhero. He always did the right thing no matter what and in every situation, he looked out for the guy who could not or was not strong enough to stand up for himself.

Superman had a major weakness  though and it was called Kryptonite. When he was exposed to it, the effects of this element would weaken him tremendously and if left exposed to Kryptonite, its properties would eventually kill him.
Over the course of his history, many people used this weakness to kill Superman but he somehow always managed to find a way to foil their plans until one day, he rounded up all of the kryptonite in the world (with the exception of one piece which he entrusted to the Batman) and disposed of it.

There was a lot to this Kryptonite and the smartest thing that the man of steel did was to make efforts to avoid it.

That makes sense right?

Stop trying to resist what you should be avoiding.

There was one thing that stopped Superman that was NOT kryptonite. It was, in my humble opinion, deadlier than the largest dose of Kryptonite.

In fact, the longer I have been part of the body of Christ, the more obvious it becomes that this same situation takes place in real life. There is a large number of people that would profess to be Christians that have been hit by this weapon deadlier than Kryptonite.

What was detrimental to the effectiveness of the man of steel, is equally as destructive to the Christian of today. We can all draw parallels of flesh patterns that weaken and can even destroy a Christian, but I am speaking now of something deadlier than Kryptonite of the flesh.

Anyway, I was in the comic book store with you last week and we looked through the long boxes of comic book goodness, I found this issue and it sums up the situation that the majority of Christians struggle with to this day.

In this particular issue, Superman goes toe to toe with a villain named "The Master Jailer". The Master Jailer was fascinated by locks and traps and his specialty was creating traps that were custom fit for a person's particular strength and ability.
As the story unfolded the Jailer threw many traps at the man of steel only be disappointed by their ineffectiveness. When Superman grabs the Master Jailer, the ultimate trap is sprung.

The master Jailer hits Superman with a special ray that makes The Man of Steel believe that he is not Superman but in fact just a dock worker named Mike who is going to be late for his shift if he does not get back to work. His identity is muddied and since identity always brings purpose, Mike.. I mean Superman punches in and lives life with no purpose.

The confused Superman spends much of the story working tirelessly unloading ships at the state docks and although he still has this unbelievable strength and ability, he has no clue who he was made to be while the Master Jailer is on the crime spree of his life. The Jailer could care less if Superman was exhibiting his strengths and abilities, just as long as he remained in the dark as to his true identity.

Are you drawing the parallel yet?

Satan is the master jailer and his deadlier than Kryptonite attack on believers is to somehow convince them that they are NOT who God says that they ARE.

I speak to people all the time and as I speak to Christians, what I see more than any other thing is a lack of understanding on Spiritual Identity. Their righteousness is a behavior modification campaign and holiness is something that believe that you achieve to have. They spend hours upon hours engaged in labor trying to just do their best. They exhibit the fruits of the Spirit but are never quite free in Christ enough to live it out because they are trapped in a performance based acceptance mindset. If I do this I will be Holy, if I do that I will not be Holy anymore.

They have been confused. The master jailer has used good things to convince them that they are NOT who God made them. The truth of the matter is, God made them Holy through His son Jesus Christ. Any attempt on my part, through my own strength to achieve "holiness" is in fact self-righteousness. It was righteousness generated by my own intentioanl actions or labor.

God created you new at Salvation and placed a new heart within you. The flesh (Operating out of your own resources) will be something you struggle against and always will with this earth suit, but you have been changed at your core! His Spirit now resides within you.

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."  ~ Romans 12:2


The world needs Christians to just honestly wake up to who they are IN Christ. You take the power from another place and put it to work here!

The church at Ephesus had left her first love. They were known for having impecable doctrine and for being "busy" with activities. The busyness was a distraction from the reality that they had lost their identity to a calander of events. They lost thier identity of who they were to and in Christ, to well intentioned programs and events.
 I was told along time ago when looking at a swollen carcass of a dead racoon alongside the highway, "Never confuse swelling with growth".

"In this kingdom, you really do get what you seek after."

 If you seek after a passionate, dynamic, and genuine love relationship with Jesus Christ, you will find it! It works in opposite as well.

If you look around where you are and see what you have, it is proof of what you have truly been seeking after.

Christ came to make you free indeed!

Take a good look at who you are IN, THROUGH, and BECAUSE of Him and you will leave the "Religious activity" timecard at the spot where you take back to the skies!


Climbing with you,
~Dan

Always Look Again

 

 

I was very young at the time, and it's funny how those moments you forget so easily come back so strong at the slightest reminder isn't it? You think you have them buried and then a song, a smell, or a familiar sight exhumes those long forgotten moments of time and everything is real again.

 

I am really not sure why my dad loaded my brother and I up in our family station wagon and drove the 45 minute drive to the mall in Logansport Indiana on the day that he did, not because we did not take trips as kids, but because of the destination of this particular trip. This trip was going to be a trip that really shaped my life in a large way.

 

We arrived at my very first ever Comic Book show. My dad was not a "Comic book" guy but he knew that his kids were "Comic book" kids.

As far as my eyes could see there were long white boxes on top of and underneath tables all down the length of the shopping mall atrium. I knew very little about comic books back then, but I knew deep down inside that this was a limitation that I was going to soon change.

 

Everywhere I looked I saw posters of brightly colored people doing impressive things like throwing cars, flying and fighting explosive battles; I also saw a few  posters of not so well clothed people doing other things. It was a strange collage of artists and geeks. People dressed funny and looked even funnier. I was soaking everything in when there under one of the tables I saw a beat up and dirty long white box with a hastily scrawled out sign on the outside.

 

"Comic books... 5 for 25¢ "

 

I nearly fainted because when your dad gives you and your brother $20.00 to start your first comic book collection, this is a sign that can start your collection off large!!!

 

It was all over for me after my brother and I lugged a few white boxes out of the mall that afternoon. It took us weeks to read through all of those books and I have to say that I learned how to read very well because of it. I would look at the pictures and ask myself, "What is this guy saying that makes the other one so mad?" I did not understand so much of what I read, but I knew that I wanted to.

 

This past Saturday was "National Free Comic Book Day". I stood outside of the local comic book shop here, Fortress of Solitude Comics, and I looked down at my young son and I asked him, "You ready to see what they got buddy?"

He nodded happily and we quickly entered.

 

It's funny how those moments you forget so easily come back so strong at the slightest reminder isn't it? You think you have them buried and then a song, a smell, or a familiar sight exhumes those long forgotten moments of time and everything is real again.

 

We made our way to tables that were filled with the long white boxes and the smell of old newsprint hit my nose and memories of that time with my brother and my dad came back.

 

Since that day as a kid until now, I have acquired a pretty large comic book collection and I enjoy it quite a bit. It's my "thing". I don't follow sports or hunt but this is something that I found that I identified with pretty well.

 

I bought several books this last week and I wanted to share some thoughts with you about one that stood out very strongly to me, so just for a moment, pretend that you and I are looking through old comic book boxes and this is one I would show you that caught my attention.

 

 

Marvel Comics introduced a run of comic books called the "What Ifs?". These were stories that asked the question "What if" and placed the characters in their marvel universe at the imaginations of the story writers.

 

This one stood out to me on this past Saturday. "What if Uncle Ben had lived?"

In case you are not a Spiderman fan or familiar with his story, here is the short version.

 

Spider-Man is a fictional character, a comic book superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (cover-dated Aug. 1962). Lee and Ditko conceived the character as an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and as a teenager, having to deal with the normal struggles of adolescence in addition to those of a costumed crime fighter. Spider-Man's creators gave him super strength and agility, the ability to cling to most surfaces, shoot spider-webs using wrist-mounted devices of his own invention (which he called "web-shooters"), and react to danger quickly with his "spider-sense", enabling him to combat his foes.

 

One night, his Uncle Ben is killed by a robber that Peter Parker chose not to stop earlier in the evening and when Peter arrived home he discovered that the results of his actions played a large role in the outcomes of the future. He dedicated his life to fighting crime on the night of his uncles murder and resolved that "With great power comes great responsibility".

So the question asked was, "What if Peter's uncle had never died?" How would this change his life?

 

I saw this cover and I immediately asked the two questions of myself that I am asking you now

 

What single event or series of events have cause you the most amount of pain in your life?

 

Would you change them in light of who you have become because of those events?

 

At first thought, most of us would readily accept the opportunity to change a heartbreak wouldn't we? I mean, those are the kinds of things that bury a person in shame or trap them in a prison of the heart and mind right?

 

I would like to submit that while there are moments in the measure of my life's song that I would never want to repeat again, I do know that I would not be the musical score I am without them.

 

Those are the events that shape us into the individuals that we are and they mold and fashion the heart to be the sculpture that it is.

 

"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps." ~ Psalms 16:9

 

We all plan our life out so well don't we? The job we ought to work. The salary that we ought to make, and the things in life that we ought to have. We establish in our mind the way that we want our life to look ten years down the road and while setting goals is not a bad thing, we need to understand that God's path may look different than ours. His allowed path can sometimes look pretty messy even.

 

The message of this blog is very simple when you take away all of the stories and illustrations.

 

"GOD'S PURPOSE, NOT HIS FAIRNESS DICTATES THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR LIFE"

 

I can honestly say that after looking again, I would not change anything God has placed on my path because it is my journey with my heavenly Father and you have yours with Him. He knows you inside out and He knows what "Uncle Ben" moments that you need in your storyline in order to help you establish His purpose in your life!



I appreciate you taking the time to "Comic shop" with me for a bit. If I could ask one thing of you, it would be to look again at the circumstances in your life that have "added you to the roster of those that make the Kingdom the most exciting realm of all" and look again.

There will be things that are painful to see, but they were used to shape you into the person that you are and they have in turn provided you with the amazing power to make a difference with passion and drive.

I would never wish some of the events you experienced to be re-lived, but I would ask that if you have not already done so, that you ask The Writer (Father God) to open your eyes to His purpose in the story line that He allowed to be written in your book.

He loves you and your story is AMAZING!

Climbing with you,
~Dan

*Next week I cannot wait to show you the other Comic book that I found! I saved the best for last!!!