Fulfilment

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThank you for your prayers.

For many years I lived under
the first half of Proverbs 13:12:
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”

None of my dreams happened.
I first tried to move to New York City in 1993.

I spent fourteen years
trying to get ordained so I could plant a church
in New York City.

I walked away from church.
And spent about a decade as a
floundering freelance artist.

I came back.

I walked away again,
but this time it was because God called me out,
and I went into the lonely place where I was schooled by Jesus.
And I gave up my way,
And embraced a call to other floundering creative people
who didn’t need self help,
they needed to learn how to hear God
and in the process,
I discovered Christianity that works.

If it doesn’t work for you,
then it isn’t Christianity.
You may have been told that your beliefs are right,
but tell me,
where’s the fruit?
Jesus only wants to see fruit,
not your beliefs.

I digress.

On Monday
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Greenwich village.
Oddly,
it was very familiar,
and completely new.
I was doing what I have done in Akron, Cleveland,
London, Paris, Jerusalem, and Rome.
This time,
I was doing it at home.

And God just brought people to me:
A lady on the subway singing songs
who needed a prophetic word that God has answered her prayer.
An emerging artist who has discovered his Jewish roots
and is processing how it fits into his Christian faith.
A young woman leading sets at a house of prayer and excited
that God is moving people into New York.
A standing room only midday mass in Greenwich village.
There are more with us than those who are against us.

And walking down the street
to a Chinese restaurant
I went to in the 1990’s
I looked back at all the twists and turns.
All the struggles and all the challenges
were for a reason,
and God has brought me back to where I was back then,
only with all the prayers answered.

There is a second half of to Proverbs 13:12.
When the desire comes,
it is a tree of life.

Don’t give up.
Keep going.
And do not be afraid.

He Never Fails,