So I recently changed the title, URL, and some background aspects of this blog. I thought it would make sense to share a little about what's going on.
I've previously mentioned about a health condition I've been battling for a while now, either for a year-and-a-half, or longer, depending on how you measure it. It's not life-threatening, and I don't expect it to be life-threatening anytime soon. But that doesn't mean I haven't had my scares. I'm not used to being as fragile as I am. I'm only in the middle-age era of life. I haven't reached old age, and I don't anticipate doing so for quite a while yet. I've had days where I don't have much energy and need to rest. I had a few of them in a row recently after listening in on a particularly abusive conversation and taking a while to recover. As part of my fight against what is very clearly the enemy's attempts to take me out, I set the below image on my phone's home screen as a daily reminder of my rallying verse:
Given that this blog has become a place of proclaiming the Gospel, and where I can also allow a certain degree of vulnerability inasmuch as it serves to also preach the Gospel, this verse fits here as well. The previous title, "For Everything There Is A Season," was introduced because I was coming back after 6 years away from this page, and it was a measure to guard against abusing the purpose of writing. If at any point I felt I was slipping in my self-control in terms of posting things that was not going to be appropriate, or where I was using this page to self-indulge in any way, I needed to have the ability to walk away at any time for an indeterminate period of time. And there were times I did walk away, especially in the first few years of my return starting in 2019. Over time, as I began using this space to preach the Gospel and not so much preach about what I'm doing (although I would do that occasionally), the shift stuck. Obviously, some trials especially around the years of 2023 and 2024 pushed me to the edge of that boundary line of appropriateness and self-indulgence. But with God's help I was able to not go too far.
Anyway, life is different in so many ways that I couldn't even have imagined back in 2019. This time, I got the girl and married her. That alone helped so much. Now, I'm aware of, in a sense, a fight for survival. Priorities have shifted. Needs have shifted. But the God I preach remains the same. One key prayer is to learn more about my purpose here on earth, my mission, my assignments. I have gifts. I use some of them. There are likely others that need to be developed, and to where I need to step out and use them as well. I'm still presently unclear on where writing (and specifically blogging) fits into that, but I am clear that Declaring The Works Of The Lord are a key part of that.
I shall not die, but live; and declare the works of the Lord. Psalm 118:17