A Journey from Surviving to Thriving

      I wake up most mornings thanking God for another shiny new marble and look forward to the day ahead!  And most of those days are good. Unfortunately, on occasion the marble is a bit cloudy — and the day simply doesn’t go right.  This post is about making that cloudy marble shine again. Obviously a quick back story is warranted here.  As shared in an earlier post (Post #3), about eight years into this medical Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) journey, I read of a man who studied the actuarial tables and determined by those actuarial standards how many days he had yet to live.  He then purchased a large glass jar and a number of marbles equal to the number of his remaining days and placed that glass jar with the marbles in his basement workroom.  Each morning thereafter he’d go down to his basement workroom and remove a marble from that glass jar, thank God for that day, and ask God to help him use that day for His glory.   In my case, at the start of this medical journey, the

It’s been said, “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.”   This got me thinking: just what are the lessons I’ve learned in life and how have they helped me thrive?  The purpose of this post is to crystalize some of those lessons — some that we’ve learned while on the current medical journey as we seek to move from surviving to thriving; others are from our life’s journey in general.   Life is a continuous learning experience.  Some lessons learned come from God as the Holy Spirit speaks to us in a quiet moment.  Other lessons may be learned from a good book or a valued friend.  Still others may be learned from those inevitable times when we step into one of those ugly potholes in our pathway of life.  Anyway one cuts it, there is much to be learned if our minds are calibrated to learning.  As an unknown author has said, “ Develop a passion for learning.  If you do, you will never cease to grow.”   I believe God fully e

You’ve experienced it —a verse jumps off the page of your Bible and grabs your heart in a memorable way.   That recently happened to me,   Let me tell you about it. But I need to first give you the short back-story.  For lots of followers of Jesus, there are times when the thrill and anticipation of Scripture seems to become a bit less exciting, somewhat ho-hum and rather dull — and one’s prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling and go no farther  This recently happened to me and I did what I normally do in situations like this — I immerse myself in music and/or switch to a different biblical translation.   Good music has always been very inspiring and comforting to me.  I get caught up in the passion of the musician and again get excited about my time with the Lord.  For example, a friend recently sent me this song which has been very meaningful to me.  I thought you might want to enjoy it with me.  I Speak Jesus, by Charity Gayle.   In fact I keep a list of my favorite songs on my iP