"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." -Hebrews 13:8
It's been a while since I've sat down at the computer and written anything here. More than "awhile", actually it's been better than 4 months. I feel like I owe an explanation to anyone who may be reading this now. It's not that I don't want to write, or like I haven't tried... there are at least three drafts on my dashboard that I've started and abandoned. It's not because they weren't good topics, or because I ran out of words, but rather because those words seemed to lose value coming from me.
I am exactly what my profile says, a simple guy - a firefighter that's been through a lot, seen a lot, failed a lot. Those things would seem to mean that I should have a lot to say, or lessons to lend, or experiences to share... but the reality is that they mean the exact opposite. If I had to learn those lessons for myself, then what gives me the right to tell anyone else anything ? The truth you may need in the exact same situation may be different than the truth I had to find... God is incredible in this one fact- When you seek him in your life, your relationship... He will be exactly what you need to fill the voids left by your failings and inadequacies. He doesn't fail.
Somewhere this became me sharing... which is good, but somehow it became me sharing me... which is bad. The truth is my view, my truths are skewed by my perspective, by my position, and by my character, which may not be the same as the person's reading this. So let me share the one thing that is the same.
There was a lady who was very influential in my early adulthood. Her name was Francis Duvall, but we just called her "Granny Doll". I can see her now sitting in the pew a few rows up, her gray and white hair twisted up in traditional Pentecostal style. When the choir would sing that old song " He's never failed me yet, he's never failed me yet... " I would hear Granny Doll's voice singing along, ... " He's never failed me ...., He's never failed me.... " her little hands raised in worship. One day I asked her why she left off the "yet" at the end of those lines in the chorus. She looked at me, her face growing very serious. " Because Phillip, the "yet"should never have been there." I remember her taking both my hands in hers, and saying " If I say He's never failed me yet, then the yet means that somewhere down the road, he might fail me... but he won't, because he can't." she sighed. " Jesus never fails... And That's why I sing it that way."
I can't write from a perspective of knowing anything except the truth that Jesus shares, the truth that He is. And I can't relate my experiences or knowledge to anything other than this truth. He loves us, and He NEVER fails.
