Cannot believe it has been 16 years since I graduated from Ashland Theological Seminary. Gosh, God has done some miraculous and amazing things with this broken messy person over the years and I continue to stand in awe of how God stretches me, prunes me and purifies me.

I believed I was worthless, damaged dirty and unusable. I believed I was abandoned, unlovable and not good enough. I walked through life feeling rejected, hopeless, lost, while wondering through my days trying to fill the deep pains in my life with things of the world. Things that were a momentary fix and things that continued to crush me both physically and spiritually. I lived dangerously, on the edge of a cliff as I subconsciously did anything to try and numb the pain and grab the attention of those around me just to see if I, if my life mattered enough to anyone at all.

BUT GOD. God pursued me and rescued me out of the thick treacherous waters that were consuming my life. God stretched out His right hand, grabbed ahold of my sinking life and He brought me back onto solid ground where He began breathing life into my collapsing lungs. He saw the desperation in my soul. He saw the lack of love I had for myself and He heard the screaming cries for help as I needed someone, something to notice my mere existence. God saw the little girl within me that needed resurrection, redemption and healing and God so graciously chose me out of this world to begin a great work in and through me as He showered me with His anointed and healing love.

Since the day God met me on the ground, in the grave where my dry and broken bones were finding their new home, rescuing me from the self destruction path I was quickly heading down, He has never left my side. He has never turned His back on me nor has He ever condemned me for the choices of my past. BUT what God has done is He has met me in deep places of sadness, looked into my eyes with an unwavering love and has spoken His truths into the fractured pieces life. He has showed me, without clouded vision, who I truly AM and to whom I belong. He has showed me that by His stripes I have been healed. That my story is a testament to His unfailing and unwavering love. That His grace is sufficient. That His mercies are new every morning. That He took my mess and created a masterpiece. That He made beauty from my ashes, that He turned my mourning into dancing and that He used and continues to use it all, all of the dismantled, chipped, and shattered pieces of my life for glory of His kingdom. God took what I never thought could be fixed or loved and He gently molded me back together, while loving me through the process and now, now my life is a beautiful unfolding of His goodness, of His faithfulness, of His sacrificial and unconditional love.

I am beyond GRATEFUL for God’s grace, His favor, His mercy and His unfailing love.

For nothing is impossible through Christ Jesus. If you are feeling lost, hopeless and unworthy, KNOW you are not alone and there is hope. There is someone that will meet you in your darkness, in your despair, on your ground and will speak life back into hurting soul. Someone that will pursue you, NOT judge you. Someone that will take you in and embrace you. Someone that will take all the broken pieces of your life, remold your heart, and heal the deep places of your soul that were shattered and left behind. Someone that will gently grab ahold of your hand, and someone that will walk, skip or run with you throughout your journey. Someone that will turn your graves into gardens. Someone that promises to never leave you nor forsake you and someone that will LOVE you with an unfathomable LOVE. This someone, His name is Jesus and I promise you this, He will love you in a way that will forever transform and change your life.

If God can take my life, my story, my past and redeem me using my testimony for His glory I am telling you that ANYTHING is possible. Run to Him, turn to Him and allow Him to redeem YOU. He will take what the enemy meant for evil and He will turn it for good.

Trust Him. Lean into Him and surrender your hurts, your pains, your control, your life over to Him. You will not look back and you will have NO regrets. In fact, you will know what it is like to be forgiven, loved and accepted and when you experience this you will walk in victory and freedom. Y’all let me tell you, this, all of this, it is simply GLORIOUS!!