Can you believe it has been since May... the FIRST weekend in May to be exact???? Are you like us and never thought it would go this long? Is the absence affecting you as hard as it is us.... I mean, to go EIGHT months without...... watching a St. Louis Blues hockey game is just plain excruciating!
Oh... and coincidentally, it has also been the same amount of time since our last update. In fact, the last blog post occurred a day before the last time the Blues played... not that it’s bothering us or anything. The great news is that hockey will be resuming (1st Blues game "should" be 1/15/13 incase you were wondering), but unlike hockey, the time has come for the blog to end (which may also be great news for some).
This is the last post.
Jeff and I laugh as we discuss how, at this point, we are probably the only ones who will ever read this entry. Neither one of us have been able to come to the point of being able to re-read ANY of the previous entries, however, based on our recollection of our “far from award winning” writings, we are assuming most bailed out once the excitement of “Is he going to die?” wore off. :-)
Jeff’s health is excellent. He will go for regular check-ups with his cardiologist but so far everything indicates that with continued regular exercise, his by-pass grafts will last for many years.
We are approaching the one year anniversary of that day... the first Saturday of 2012, January 7th.
We do not live attempting to rationalize what God’s purpose is for events and situations which don’t occur according to our plan, our agenda, our will. Human reasoning will never be able to comprehend it. From this vantage point, we can’t see the bigger picture.
I read a quote last week summing up perfectly why we named this blog, “A Higher Purpose”. Jeff and I live firmly believing in a God who is “BIG enough, KIND enough, REAL enough and STRONG enough to move in power in our everyday lives - no matter what we’re facing” - Matt Redman.
Ironically, the quote came from the devotional written to express the inspiration behind the worship songs on the album, “10,000 Reasons”. You may recall we adopted a song off of that album, “Never Once” as our anthem last year. The song still resonates with us, we put together a brief video as a visual thank you, to show how your prayers, encouragement and anonymous acts of kindness helped us during our tough time and how through it all, we can say, “God is faithful”.
God answered a prayer we wrote down on January 2, 2012 after being inspired by a twitter message from a great friend and mentor to, “Pray presumptuously, recklessly, boldly. Matthew 6:8”. God answered EVERYTHING in that bold prayer in 2012. I'm thankful we chose to pray it, chose to write it down, chose to save it. It serves as a great reminder of His provisions.
As we close the door on this chapter, we would like to share with you our prayer for 2013. It is inspired by the song “Broken Bread” by Rend Collective Experiment, a song we have adopted as our new anthem. Despite any uncertainties we may face, any adverse trials and unforeseen circumstances, we pray our faith remains strong, our eyes fixed above and we give our lives whole heartedly over to our Lord, saying “YOUR WILL BE DONE”.
May I be broken bread, may I be poured out wine
May I incarnate, Your kindness Lord
Spend my life Jesus, anyway You please
Whether on great things, or what seems small
Your will done your way
Your will done your way
Your will done your way
I will not fight You
Take me past the line that my heart draws
I will not fight You
Take me beyond the laziness of my thoughts
I will not fight
Lead me further than I've gone before
I will not fight You
I'm abandoned to Your call
Do not let there be, any part of me
That’s untouchable, unreachable
Let my delight be, living out Your dreams
Washing dirty feet, and kissing yours
God let Your dreams come true, dream through us
God let Your dreams come true through us
We pray you are able to feel the joy and peace that comes from surrendering your life to Christ, to be able to celebrate all of life's moments and to say with us, "GOD IS GOOD!!!! ALL THE TIME!!!!!" Thank you for coming along on this journey with us. With much love, Stacy and Jeff Curtis
