Pictures have always spoken to me. There is something about imagery and seeing a visual representation of growth in God that has always spoke to me. So, naturally I love doing photo challenges because they really allow me to embrace this type of growth journey through Lent.
So, during Lent this year I will be doing the YouthWorker Movement Lent Photo Challenge: #YWMoveLent.
So, let’s start things out already right!?
Day One: A Joy.
A Joy. If I am limited to one joy in my life to show visually it has to be one with my wife, Amy. I take a lot, and share a lot of pictures with my Amy. Of course it’s because I love her but also it’s because I believe that this year at Lent it will be much different than it ever has been before.
My wife is a phoenix.
A phoenix in the world of mythology which I realize is not based on fact, but myth, my Amy is a phoenix for many reasons but I will stick to two.
1. This past year was not an easy one because earlier in the year Amy was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis and was in the hospital for over a month. This was a hard time for us as you might expect, but now she is reborn like a phoenix that rises out of the ashes. Amy is now a lean, mean, preaching machine :), and everyday I am later for all that God has given me in her.
2. Amy is my phoenix because God has used her in an amazing way to teach me that I am and all of us really are accepted for who we are but through his son we are reborn in the newness of life. The past is gone, whats done is done and now we press on and look to God. This lesson has been a hard one to learn as it is for anybody because just like anybody we all have things in our past, mistakes that we have made that we would like to fix, but if we could do that then none of would be in the present. We would be too busy fixing the past to enjoy in the newness of life in the present. I thank God for giving me a visual representation of this in my wife, my best friend, and my favorite person to laugh with.
So today as I start my lenten journey my joy is for my wife, Amy, my phoenix.