Ever Singing For Joy

A Tree. A Hike. A Perspective. Publishing Edit: This post was previously unpublished.   I wrote it back in early September 2023. As I’ve had time over the Christmas break to catch up on some things, I decided to go back and grab some older, unpublished posts and get them on the blog.   This is the first of a few that are coming.   Life looks a little different now even though it was only a few months ago, but by and large the underlying message/theme of this post still hold true.   God is gracious toward me.   I don’t deserve it and I certainly have room to grow as I continue to understand all of the ways He provides for me and my family, but I’m grateful for these moments of reflection.   —— On a recent trip to Maine, I went to Acadia National Park.   I had an opportunity to hike ‘Bee Hive’. It was one of the more strenuous hikes in the park and it involved climbing nearly 600’ in elevation while traversing the side of a mountain.   I’m making it...

I haven’t written and published anything since the days following Ash’s funeral. (The weight even writing the latter half of that sentence still brings a flurry of emotions) The absence of writing out my thoughts is not for lack of content to document and record; it’s out of motivation.   I’ve said, often, to those who have asked ‘How I’m doing?’ that I’m putting one foot in front of another and letting the muscles move, but that one of the biggest struggles I’m finding in general is motivation to do anything outside of the bare necessity.   There is a bit of a vicious cycle involved with the lack of motivation and being productive in particular areas of life that require motivation. The lack of motivation produces anxiety about not getting things done and then not getting things done leads to this ‘sense of defeat’.   This was REALLY bad for the first couple of months following Ash’s death.   REALLY bad.   It does seem that these past few weeks have been a bit ...

There's some exciting news on the home front; a welcomed respite from the struggles of the recent months. If you'll remember a post or two ago, I mentioned that Ashley had been working on a side project. I called it a side project because we'd been working through a lot of the struggles that came along with her cancer, but in reality, this project consumed a lot of Ashley's time and energy.  It was not a side project. Over the course of the past 2+ years, maybe even longer than that, Ashley has been working on a book.  You read that correctly, a book.  A children's book, more specifically, entitled it When I Hold You.   I cannot think of a better name for this book. I could go on about the backstory (and probably will in the coming days), but I'll put some of Ashley's words below about why she wrote this and how it all came to pass: I wrote this out of obedience to Christ.  As I started my recovery from my initial surgery and treatments, I never set out wit...

The changing of the seasons is always a welcomed experience in Alabama.  To go from the exhaustive heat of Summer to the crisp (albeit brief) chill of the Autumn air to landing the plane in the cantankerous, somewhat unpredictable Winter... the narrative of the changing seasons parallels life so well.  As a family, we've enjoyed some really great, memory filled moments over the past 6 months; we've also had some really tough, also unforgettable moments during that time as well.  The main takeaway is that much like the seasons, changes in life are inevitable and with each of life's seasons there are ups and downs and, yet, everything keeps moving forward. Undoubtedly, it seems that some of my recent, relatively vague facebook posts have generated a little bit of curiosity so let's shoot back to a little over a month ago (right before Christmas) and recap what's been going on. This stands to be a fairly long post catching everyone up so if you really don't want to...

I love Easter.  I love it so much.  I love ALL of the miracles we are reminded of during the Easter season.  I have no idea what the bunny is about, but, I do know that Easter Sunday of 1995 is when 7 year old Ashley gave her life to Christ.  BEST. DECISION. I'VE. EVER. MADE.  Seriously, the BEST! Please enjoy the picture.  It makes me smile from the inside out.  The missing tooth, the homemade Easter dress (courtesy of my mom), the glamorous red carpet, my mom's radiant smile AND (even though you can't hear it in the picture) the organ playing I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. Ok, all giggles aside, becoming a Christian course corrected  my life.  It wasn't a dramatic change on the outside (at least for me).  It was a precious first step.  Repent.  From there, God continued to work on my heart.  I grew in my faith .  Slowly.  I didn't have all of the answers overnight, but the growth in Jesus I experienced w...

There are moments in history that change the course of life.  A year ago today was one of those moments. Realizing that we haven't updated the blog in a while, we thought that this would be a perfect time to jump back into the fray. No doubt that I'll have a pretty lengthy write up soon to recap some of my thoughts, lessons learned, current struggles, recent victories, etc. but I thought it appropriate to ask Ash to give me a write up to commemorate the day (especially given that this time last year, the last thing I ever thought she'd be doing was writing a blog post).  Below is her letter.  Thanks for reading it. I hope you'll take a minute to reflect on  your  past year and that you'll see how God has worked in and through you and those around you to bring you where you are today. To recap on last year's surgery day post: Go Here (Unexpectedly Expected) Struggles and trials are often presented to us as things we need to avoid or minimize as ...