daniel is born

Well, Daniel has arrived and we are comfortably into our new home!  The return from my dad’s funeral, our super-speed move into our new home, the holidays, graduation from my Master’s Program and Daniel’s arrival all happened in the past 6 weeks!  Never, ever again do Julie and I want to repeat this experience.  I was down for the count for about 4 of those 6 weeks, simply surviving the torrent of activities and emotions.

Something miraculous happened, however, on December 19th at about 10:20 AM.  When that baby came all that tremendous weight and pressure seemed to flee.  I can’t explain it and I don’t understand it all, but Julie said that I smiled for the first time in weeks.  And it felt good!

Months ago, every time I said, “I’m just hanging on because 2008 is coming”, I did not realize the massive truth inherent in that statement.  When I said that months ago, I truly thought I was just hanging on, little did I know there would soon come a day when I literally was just hanging on and even so only by a thread.

I owe a tremendous debt to so many people, including all of you who prayed for us during these times!  I owe my life to my wife and kids who somehow managed to survive not only through the difficult circumstances, but through my emotional breakdown as well!  I owe my new found family at CONVERGE more than I can ever repay for understanding what I was going through, the tremendous emotional support and for all the physical help they have been to our family.   I owe so much to random people I’ve never even met for their kindness and generosity through all the things you go through with major life events.  I owe our Trinity family for all they’ve done, including helping to move all of our belongings to our new house as we were preparing my dad’s funeral.  I could go on!

The good news...  It’s 2008!!!  We’re putting everything behind and looking straight ahead to a year God has promised will be one of the best of our lives!  So many people from CONVERGE have had this intuitive sense that it’s going to be a tremendous year.   I’ve been saying that for several months as well.  I just had this sense in my spirit that this year would be a transition into something new for us!

In October I took a group of CONVERGE leaders to Catalyst leadership conference and and we spent a couple extra days getting to know our new team and praying for God to blow us away.  I kept saying to the team that God was about to take me into a new place of submission.  I told them that I had no clue what that meant because I felt that I had submitted all I could to Him in 2007.  I literally kept saying I don’t’ know what this will mean, but I know something deeper is coming.  Well, as I look back I am completely dumbfounded by the awareness God had been giving me leading up to the past couple months.  He truly was preparing me for what was to come.  

Although He often rescues us from the details, He will certainly prepare us with intuitive expectation.  It is a fresh reminder to me about how much He cares... How much He so deeply cares!  It’s painful to be loved so much.  More than anything else going into this new year, I hope you know how much He so deeply cares!  It’s too good for us to miss!!