A Word of Thanks

Even though Thanksgiving Day is clearly in the rear view mirror, I am aware of unspoken words of gratitude which still need a voice.  As I write this blog, I am grateful to God for bringing this ministry of writing into my life.  It is like many of His blessings in that it is something I did not see coming until suddenly it was made visible to me.  I have always had an interest in writing, but throughout my life, I saw myself as a preacher and not a writer.  I remember well the day some five years into retirement when the God who called me to preach lifted that urgency from my life.  I am grateful to Him for enabling me to continue in usefulness to Him in this season of my life.   

Grateful, too, am I for those who read what I am writing.  Without those of you who read, I would be like a  preacher preaching to empty pews.  Some who read I do not know and some who read are those with familiar faces and stories we have shared together over the years.  I am grateful to both groups who form a different kind of congregation which has been entrusted to me by our Father.  The responses and comments offered and the faces which come to mind are a constant encouragement to keep at it.  Again, I am grateful to each of you for giving me those moments of your life to read and reflect on JourneyNotes.  I do not take such a gift lightly.  Thank you.  

I am grateful as well for those along the way who helped me find this path.  My high school English and Literature teacher, Mrs. Evans. saw in me things I could not see in myself.  She opened my mind to great literature and pushed me to involve myself in debate and writing competitions.  In some way she did more to send me on my way into God's future than college or seminary professors.  I wish she had lived long enough for me to realize the lasting impact she had on my life; however, she died before I came to understand what she had done for me.  So even though it is a tad late, I say once again as I have said many times to the wind which carries words away from here to there, "Thank you, Mrs. Evans."