Are You Ready for a New Thing?

A fresh starts are a good thing. God is always doing something new–even in impossible situations!

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19 NLT).

Being in relationship with our Father through His Son Jesus Christ is never boring. He is eager to share something new every day.

After my son’s conviction and sentencing to prison, I allowed the hurts to cause me to withdraw into a season of depression. The Lord kept nudging me to let go of those hurts and to grab hold of Him and His promises.

I knew in my head that God promises good things to those He loves, but it felt like nothing good was going on in my life.

In my “before Christ” days, I lived in darkness and recalled how evil, evil really is. There’s no way I could turn back and go without God in my life.

I held onto to the Word though it felt like I was slipping and I only had a pinkie hold.

But God! He would not let go of me. Little by little as I continued to seek Him in His word, He pulled me out of the despair. The Lord helped me adjust to the new reality of living life with an incarcerated son.

Then I began to see His light shine in my life shining brighter and brighter. I kept moving toward His light.

Yes, my dreams were shattered…

But God gave me new dreams.

New visions.

New desires.

Two weeks after my son’s arrest, I reluctantly attended a conference that had already been paid for. Two colleagues noticed things weren’t right with me. One of them happened to be a licensed professional counselor. We stepped out of the conference and they drove me around town while I poured out my heart about my son. We stopped at Barnes & Noble. Standing outside the door I asked, “Why did we stop here?”

“I’m going to buy you a journal. You need to record your story because after you receive comfort from God, you will help comfort others.”

I graciously accepted his gift of the journal and upon his advice, began recording my life. For the next four years, I wrestled with the Lord about sharing so transparently about our son and this prison journey.

Frankly, nobody wants to talk about having a loved one in prison. It’s difficult when people ask, “How many children do you have?” Then follow up with, “What do they do?”

Because I have a compassionate heart and a desire to help others, God kept putting people in my path that drew out the testimony of my incarcerated son. And to my surprise, people began to tell me their stories of having someone they know personally who is incarcerated.

I realized two things. First, I learned that there are more people around me than I imagined who deal with family incarceration. Because of my transparency, they shared with me. And second, the words spoken into my life just weeks after my son’s arrest began to come to pass in my life. I find myself comforting others as God has comforted me.

“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT).

Now in 2018, the Lord has more opportunities for me to share my story publicly in order to help comfort other prison families in need.

God is ready to comfort you in all the broken places where it seems impossible for anything good to come out of it. In the wilderness, He brings rivers of life.

In 2018, watch for God to do something new in your life.