You know, for a techie, I'm way behind on the whole blogging scene. I guess I might as well jump right into the middle of it. At our church staff retreat earlier this month, we were challenged about our spiritual habits . . . quiet time, Bible reading, prayer, tithing, accountability, journaling . . . I must admit I have been a VERY lazy Christ-follower for quite some time now. So it's time that I pick up some of the habits that I let slip, and start some new ones that I have never tried. Journaling is one of the new ones . . . and what better way than electronically through a blog?!

I believe God's purposes for my life are in three areas - church, school, and politics . . . three things most people run from, but the three driving forces of my life (aside from family and my relationship with God.) My posts will probably focus on God's direction in those areas.

For today, I'd like to leave you with something that I've already shared with some people. My family experienced the hardest week of our lives at the end of July. My grandma, who meant the world to all of us, died at age 80. Eighty years seems like a long time to live, and 27 years seems like a long time to get to spend with your grandmother, but when it's someone so special, no amount of time seems like enough. The unrelenting disease of Alzheimer's had taken her from us over a period of four years and that time - especially the last year - was very hard for all of us. I'll tell more about her in a future post, but for now I want to share this:

I started reading The Purpose Driven Life again this week . . . third try's a charm, right??? Today was Day 4, so I should know next week ifI am going to make it through this time! There were a couple of things that really stood out to me today more than they did the last two attempts:

1. "You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity."

2. Later, he talks about how we long for immortality, and we want those we know and love to live forever. He says, "The reason we feel we should live forever is that God wired our brains with that desire!"

3. Then he quotes C.S. Lewis from the last page of the Chronicles of Narnia: "For us this is the end of all the stories . . . . But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world . . . had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever and in which every chapter is better than the one before."

Our 70, 80, 90 years are just the cover and the title page. Wow . . . it's just so hard to imagine how, when we think about how much there is to life, we haven't even begun to live. And when we die, that's the BEGINNING of chapter one! And every chapter gets better?

Just think - for us, July 25 was the end of a lot of great stories . . . . But for her it was only the beginning of the real story. All her life in this world had only been the cover and the title page; now she has begun Chapter One of the Great Story, which we haven't read, which goes on forever and in which every chapter is better than the one before!

Until next time . . . .