This is just the beginning.

This is the beginning of a new chapter - the chapter of a man who has been broken. Broken isn't such a bad term, at least not in my book. "Broken" can be a good thing when the Maker decides to make "improvements", because usually he has something much better in mind. Forgive me, but do you catch my spiritual cliche' there? As a follower of Jesus, I am constantly being challenged and changed because it "isn't I, but Christ who lives in me." My life is not mine. My wishes are not mine. My goals, ambitions, dreams and aspirations are not mine - they are His, or at least I strive for them to be so.

The following entries will be the chronicles of a journey...that journey down the "broken" road. You will see raw emotion and an unedited taste of what I'm learning, how I'm growing and what I'm being challenged to become. My hope is that through my genuine expression of real truths and life lessons, that you will be blessed and able to encounter something that I've discovered and now need more than ever: His grace.

See, grace in and of itself is "getting what we don't deserve." If you're like me, you can think of several instances in life where that has happened. Maybe it was something simple and small - like a gift. Maybe it was something better, and maybe it was something great. Something massive. Something out of the ordinary. Something that makes your jaw drop in amazement because you never saw it coming.

Over the last year, this is a concept that I have studied and grown more and more appreciative of, and highly grateful for. Ephesians 1 talks about being "adopted as sons and daughters, to the praise of His glorious grace." You see, there is grace...and then there is glorious grace. A grace that gives you strength to face each new challenge while overcoming your inadequacies/insufficiencies at the same time. A grace that gives you the ability to face your fears with courage and commitment. A grace that gives you the eyes to see yourself as your Father sees you, not as the devil wants you to be seen - full of shame and indignity, shrouded in regret and fear.

A famous preacher once said: "Grace and glory differ very little. One is the seed - the other is the flower. Grace is glory militant. Glory is grace triumphant."

Think about that.

Intertwining, coexisting, essentially one in the same. Grace supplies you with the strength for the fight, glory is the result of all of that effort...and you and I would be foolish to deflect that glory to anyone other than our Jesus, who gave us the ultimate gift of grace when He died for you and me.

Come with me friends, let's go on this journey together. This broken road is paved with His glorious grace. It is indeed, the best place to begin.