& who are you?

Hi all! Quick introduction and a little bit about why I decided to start this blog….Never in a million years did I envision myself engaging online at all. I deleted most of my social media platforms quite some time ago and felt just fine and comfortable being “off the grid”. Carrying a flip phone wouldn’t bother me any and I genuinely love a good old fashioned hand written note.

Even so, I read a verse about being a light on a hill in a dark place and felt it was time to start engaging. Why ? Because I have the greatest news that has ever been told.

I found it in the greatest love letter ever written and I am confident that it has to be shared!

Some of you may know it as the place you can find the 10 Commandments…or a text to read about ancient history/wild battle scenes and events that sound too fantastic….Others may recall it as the book that’s in a box somewhere in the attic, and to some you know it too, as the daily reminder that there is a light and the light has overcome the darkness.

I pray that throughout the nations… to the ends of the earth, everyone will be certain that it, the Holy Bible, is the inspired word of God where joy, life, freedom, and truth can ultimately be found.

So briefly about me… at eighteen years old, (against my parents council obviously), I got my first tattoo. On the space above my right elbow reads restoration. Upon this decision to have the word forever marked on my body, I had no context for it other than a car getting fixed up to its original design or condition. In Biblical terms, restoration is the returning to God’s heart in perfect relationship as it was before the Fall in the Garden of Eden. The Old Testament reveals how early on this reconciliation between God and mankind becomes the pulse of existence, but with an eagerness to get some ink on my skin, the word just felt cool and inspiring. 

Although unfamiliar with the true definition at the time, I was more than well acquainted with a sense of emptiness within. Guilt consumed me, fits of anxiety entangled me in its web, I was caught in patterns of religious legalism, constantly succumbing to vices, always striving for the next best thing to fill me, excite me, or comfort me. Above all, my relationship or lack thereof with Jesus was fragile and cold at best. The Lord did not seem like my reconciler or rescuer and it made no sense for the tattoo to be a visual representation of who I was. 

Yet while I was consumed with living in the good old days and doing everything in my power to secure my own happiness and prosperity, Jesus was ensuring that I would be brought to the bank of surrender and utterly  humbled in order to partake in eternal glorious days, where “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Christ began relentlessly pursuing me long before I even thought to rightly consider Him, because His unfailing aim is for my heart and for yours to be restored in perfect harmony to His and He made a way. And that is the greatest news ever! 

We live in a world where it is abundantly clear that there is hardship, brokenness, confusion, greed, and wrong doings that seem like they will never be made right. But God, my two favorite words, is and has been since before the creation of the world, interceding in complete sovereignty over all things. He has made a way for the problem, our sin, to have a solution so that those who believe Jesus’s death and resurrection for their past, present, and future sins counted for them; and because of Christ’s finished work on the cross,  we can freely surrender and accept a new identity that can never be taken away (Romans 8:38-39). 

So, to the one who happened upon this page, this is not a self-help, a how to, or a guide to life. This is my testimony; my public declaration, thoughts, and praises of all that Christ has done and is doing. This is for anyone who has ever felt lost and in need of something more than the gears of their own tiresome battle of self-sufficiency.

Many have gone before me to write about the beauty of God. Many whose wisdom is far greater than mine and whose words are more eloquent than any I could ever hope to string together. Nonetheless, a fire has been lit in my soul for Jesus and it is my hope to share the miracle of salvation and sanctification through the lenses of the story He has and will continue to grace me with. I pray that at least one person relates to what they read and believes in the all encompassing power of Jesus Christ to breathe new life into theirs. 

My story is common, but my God is not!

To the One who died for me and the world to know Him, who rose from the grave and reigns now and forever,

This will be my love letter in response.

Praise the One who set me free.