Life is a Gift, that's why it's called "The Present"

There comes a time in everyone's life when we need to take a personal inventory of ourselves.  This seems to be an ongoing practice for me as I try to roll with the punches, accept my character defects and try to live in the present.  It's not easy to do but I know that I am not perfect and I still have a lot of things to learn about life. The past 4 or 5 years have been most challenging.  I found out that I had Lyme Disease in 2007, which went undiagnosed for 17 years and then this year I was diagnosed with an arthritic condition called Ankylosings Spondylitis!  "This too shall pass", seems to be my daily mantra as I pray and seek God's guidance for daily living.  I also struggle with the fact that I still want to be out there performing and touching people's lives through my music and through our worship ministry.  There is no doubt in my mind that most people basically want to be loved, needed, acknowledged, feel important to others and have a feeling of self worth.  It's in our human nature and yet so many people are hurting from rejection, feeling inadequate about themselves, struggling with depression and drown their sorrows with things that only hurt themselves even more. When I learned that all I needed to do was take life one day at a time and not focus on what was ahead or what happened in the past, life became less stressful!  I became more dependent on God and less dependent on people, places and things!  Do I get it right all the time? NO! Its a daily choice I make when I wake up in the morning and look at the day with anticipation of new adventures.  I don't know what's ahead of me but with simple Faith, all I need to do is look at what is in front of me today!

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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