Life | Heartstone Journey

Daddy, Carry Me!

I remember some years back taking the family up to the White Mountains of NH for a ridge hike from Mt Washington to Mt Jefferson. The scene of this day was painted by the Master Artist Himself with multiple colors of sunshine peircing through the puffy white cumulus clouds slowly floating by like someone daydreaming.

I have been hiking for years and we spent the prior year preparing the kids for this hike. Spent the day earlier that week at Eastern Mountain Sports making sure that everyone had the right gear for the adventure that awaited us all. I have to tell you that there was an excitement buzzing the air as the kids knew that they would be walking in the clouds some 6,288 ft (1,917 m) up. Not sure they truly grasped this, but nonetheless they were excited.

Jenga…For Real!

I ran upstairs to change out of my business clothes into something more comfortable and came down stairs with the movie in one hand and bottle of wine in the other hand, preparing to pour a victory drink. I asked her if she would like a glass, and she declined, which was not her usual response. So I showed her the movie I had rented and asked her if she wanted to watch it, and she declined that too, saying, “This is not going to be a good night for a movie.” As I stood there puzzled and confused, she continued. “I have something to tell you…” and she handed me a folded letter. With one last glance, she turned and walked into the other room. As I came to the word ‘divorce’ written upon the letter, I fell to my knees, paralyzed as my reality became a silhouette of yesterday arriving at the edge of a broken heart. My happily-ever-after turned to dust.

Approved

I was consumed in justifying myself apart from God, and it left me worn out, tired, and empty. Every day, I would run as hard as I could trying to find value and worth in everything else but where it was all the time—in God. I looked for it in the approval of my father, my mother, in others, in two marriages, in money, in achievement, in position and in power…I’m sure there are more places.

I spent so much time pursuing acceptance in these places that I lost everything that mattered. I became the sum total of all the expectations that I placed on my life giving up my identity, my true self just to belong. I discovered that many of the places I looked for love and acceptance never truly accepted or loved me back. What I did discover in the journey out of the midnight of my soul was that loving God is what my heart desired and what’s really awesome—He accepts me for who I am and…loves me back.

Counterfeit

Have you ever paused and discovered that it’s so easy to get lost in the counterfeit? …or realized that we live in a world where the counterfeit seems more real than the real?

Check out this conversation between Morpheus and Neo from the movie ‘The Matrix’.

A Husband Cleaves

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall CLEAVE unto his wife:
and they shall be one flesh. -Genesis 2:24

This is an interesting topic for today’s culture. First of all, the word cleave is not a common word anymore therefore is not very well known. The Bible refers to this word in two different forms, which are to separate or to join. I thought this was an interesting pairing, but learned that they kind of work together. Some other similar words are: unite, draw together, joined or glued. This idea of cleaving was brought up in the first book of the Old Testament, but it was also brought up again in the first book of the New Testament. Matthew 19 reads; “at the beginning God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his Father and Mother and be UNITED to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. They are no longer two, but one. What God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Daddy, Carry Me!

Jenga…For Real!

Approved

A Husband Cleaves

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Never Out Of The Fight!

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