Today is a cloudy, slightly chilly day in Parker, Colorado.  The perfect setting for a fire, a cup of coffee, a quiet house and the company of my favorite friend and mentor, Jesus.  Relaxing.  Comfortable.  A time of great conversation and listening and learning.  Join us?

This may be the beginning of what I hope will take the form of a book.  I have been blogging for over a year now.  Random posts of poems, songs, stories and everyday ponderings.  Jesus has taught me things and I have asked Him to help me to pass these learnings on.  The blog is made up of my life – the good, the bad and the ugly – and the emotions and lessons that come from such things.  My hope is that the scribbles that mark my experiences might bring encouragement and hope to others.

My life is not perfect.  There are still pieces of my heart that are recovering from being broken.  I have made mistakes and reaped the consequences.  I have made choices that would end in regret.  I have had dreams that have been shattered or unfulfilled.  I have endured heartbreaking pain and loss.

But my life has been beautiful.  Marked by both joy and pain, it’s shape has changed and grown over the years.  The colors have become bolder and brighter with each mountain and valley.  My life has been marked by great love – first the love of my precious Jesus and then the love of others in my life, my wonderful family and friends.  I have truly experienced and known love.  And, in turn, I have been able to give great love.  Not always without hurt, but great love just the same.  A love that will continue as long as I have breath in my lungs.  Because, to me, love is worth any pain or sacrifice required.  This has been tested, and proven to be true.

My greatest passion is to pass this love on to others.  To help them come to know the intimate love of Jesus and what a life lived with Him looks like.  Not a perfect life.  But a real, transparent and incredibly deep life.  An “abundant” life, as Jesus called it.  Overflowing.  Sometimes with great sorrow.  Sometimes with incredible joy.  But always beyond beautiful.

And why is a life with Jesus better than a life without Him?  There are so many reasons.  So many.  But at the top of my list would be that you will never know a love more profound than His.  An unconditional, never ending love.  A love that would, and did, give His life for you.  The intense love of a groom for his bride, a father for his child, a lover for his soulmate, a friend for his friend.  A love like no other.

And not only does He love us, but He understands us.  He can relate to us.  Every emotion.  Every struggle.  Every joy.  Because He came to earth to live like us, to face what we face, to feel what we feel, to experience what we experience.  He gets us to our very core.  And He wants to show us how we can not only survive all that life brings, but thrive in what life brings and live a life of profound love and joy that exceeds any struggle we may face.

Why would we not want to do life with such a person?  The best listener.  The best father.  The best teacher.  The best friend.  He extends His hand every morning that we awake and asks us to share His day with Him.  To go about the daily business of life holding His hand and knowing that whatever may happen that day, He is right there to go through it or do it with you.  He will cry with you.  He will laugh with you.  He will smile with you.  And He will love through you so that your life is not only your own, but a life that benefits others as well.  Because it will be a life of great love.

I am choosing again today to take His hand, His invitation.  So we are starting our day over a cup of coffee and a fire.  He shows me things in His word and I ponder and write and try to share what He puts on my heart.  I’d love to have you come along for the ride, and we’ll see where Jesus takes us on this new journey…