I'm still amazed that God has chosen to use me. It seems so odd . I suppose this is where faith really comes into play. Being raised in the church (and not as a preacher's kid), I ended up spending lots of summers in church camp as a couselor. That was a place I could go to write as well.
Down by the creek at the church camp...yep, it was awesome. I found myself slipping away during breaks with a pen and paper, high-tailing it into the woods, following the creek to a huge boulder in the middle of the water. You had to leap across three river rocks and a long to reach the boulder, but once you landed on the huge stone --you could stretch out and and enjoy the one ray of sunlight that warmed the upper edge of the rock.
The water bubbled and popped around you. I love lying there, closing my eyes and just listening. It was surround sound before the technology...God's technology of sorts. I simply remember I was so inspired. I thought out plots for stories that I can draw from to this day.
Anyway, Mountain Breeze was one of those thoughts that sounded cool but was never followed through with. I think I never followed through because I was afraid I'd fail. Just the same, by the time I hit mid-life, I finally figured out I could be servant of Christ without the worry of being sent to some third world country. I suppose I grossly under-estimated God. I was always afraid to ask God to use me because I was afraid he'd send me to some forsaken place in the world. I'm not the missionary type or at least that paticular type of missionary.
Finally one day, after the writer's conference, realized God uses us in the ways our talents will be best served. I needed to develop a good discipline of daily study and prayer and I thought the church congregation I attended could use the added training as well.
Then came those three words I'd avoided for years..."God use me." And He did. There, riding on the lawnmower, Mountain Breeze was born. I asked God to use me and to my surprise -- He said, "You got it baby." I figured if I could just do enough devotionals to get through one month then it would be enough to develop a habit of study.
Everyone kept saying, "Daily devotions are hard. After a while you run out of things to write on. You'll be lucky to get through thirty days."
Well, God proved them wrong and here we are, He and I, 261 meditations later and the well of living water has yet to run dry.
Giving birth to my children was probably easier because I was a willing participant from the get-go. This ministry was something I continued to put off for one reason or another. Now Mountain Breeze emails all over the country.
God agreed to use me and it's so cool. Now if He'll just help learn this blogging thing!
