"Most of the time I have all these thoughts bouncin' around in my head... but with a brush in my hand, the world just gets kinda quiet." The Notebook

What is your release? To where do you run when the pressures of this world are just too much to handle? Do you write? Do you paint? Do you meditate on a quote or verse? Do you cry out to God for help and understanding? What is your method?

Too many times in my life, I've found myself trying to explain my thoughts to someone else. Have you ever done that? Do you find yourself frustrated when the person listening can't quite understand? When they aren't able to grasp the urgency, passion, or true meaning behind your words? My release is through writing. I believe that if I ever learned how to play my beautiful guitar I purchased with last year's IRS refund check then I would be inclined to write music. That is a dream of mine, but for now blogging will have to suffice.

Right now I am resisting the urge to post song lyrics, as I typically allow them to speak for me. You see, I love music and always have it playing behind me in my office. (Right now I'm listening to Selah's newest album, You Deliver Me). The title song of the album is my favorite... okay, I'm going to post a portion of it.

When there's a distance between what I am and who I want to be
You deliver me
When I feel like I can't go on
You deliver me
When the road is winding and way too long
You deliver me
You deliver me

This is a song that I feel like I could have written... if I knew how to play my guitar. Not because I think I'm as skilled and capable as the writer of this song, but because the message is one to which I can relate, especially the lines I posted above. Have you ever experienced the feeling of being delivered?

I thank God each day, or at least I try, that He's not finished with me yet. The person I am today is not the person I was 5 years ago and certainly not the same as 10 years ago starting my freshman year in college. Praise the Lord for that! I don't even recognize that person anymore, and yet I know that in 10 more years, when I look back to today, there is a good chance the same will be true. However, I know that in looking back at the past 10 years : graduating from high school, starting college, graduating from college, moving away from East Texas, starting my first real job, and returning to East Texas again - God has taken me through some wonderful times that I pray I never forget, and He has lead me through some extremely difficult times that I sometimes wish could be erased from my memory with one of those flashy sticks used on Men in Black. Why do those thoughts remain? Maybe so I can learn from my mistakes. Perhaps so I can very specifically recall instances when I felt God pick me up and carry me. I think it's because He knows I won't truly appreciate the blessings and rewards following the trials if those memories are erased. You see, I know that God knows me FAR better than I know myself. He knows that the times when I've felt true deliverance will get me through the tough times ahead. I know that in the hard times, He will always pick me up and carry me through. How do I continue to trust? Because of the fall-on-my-face experiences that He has brought me through.

What I love most is the hope that I have as a born-again child of the living God. Lamentations 3:22-27 says,

God's loyal love couldn't have run out,
His merciful love couldn't have dried up.
They're created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He's all I've got left.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
to the woman who diligently seeks.
It's a good thing to quietly hope,
quietly hope for help from God.
It's a good thing when you're young
to stick it out through the hard times.

His mercies are made new every morning. Nothing that happens to us today or tomorrow is a surprise to an omniscient God. He knows the beginning, He knows the end, and He knows each step of the journey in between. Living for Christ is a process; it's a life of unfailing love and surpassing peace.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

Think about this...

"When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer." Corrie Ten Boom

In light of what I've written, what does that quote say to you?