First Post!

    One of the most powerful aspects of community and relationships is that moment when a piece of someone else's soul is revealed and that piece is a mirror image of yours; that moment when you want to scream, "Me too!! I thought I was the only one!" That moment when you realize you're not as alone as you think and feel...there's peace and hope in that moment.
    That moment is why I am starting this blog. I long to see women connected with one another, as we help one another connect with our God. And there's nothing like a shared feeling, thought, experience, view, or laugh to help us connect with one another.
    There are so many things I struggle with and more often than not, I feel completely alone in those struggles. They seem absurd and far out and like nothing else anyone else has ever experienced. What a lie! The enemy indeed prowls around like a lion, waiting for any opportunity to impart lies in our minds, lies that convince us that we're alone, beyond hope, and beyond grace. I repeat: What a lie!
   I want to use this blog to be open about my struggles, my lessons learned, my revelations, my reflections, my life. But I don't want it to be about me. I want it to be an open space to unveil lies, to impart truth...lies and truth that wrestle in all of our minds. I want this blog to be a place where we can encourage one another and have those moments in which we want to scream, "me too!!"

    The title of my blog, "This is a Day of Good News," comes from 2 Kings 7:9a, which reads: "Then they said to each other, 'We're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves." Now, the context of this goes something like this: There was a great famine going on in the city of Israel, while outside the city was the camp of the Arameans (who were at war with Israel). There were 4 lepers outside the city gate who were contemplating their fate; everyone in the city were starving and if they were to go in, they would surely share the same fate. So they weighed the risks and decided to venture out to the camp of the Arameans, reasoning, "If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, we die."
    However, when the men arrived, they found the camp deserted. Miraculously, the Lord had caused the entire army to "hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army," so they fled, abandoning their camp! The lepers began to feast and plunder the camp, upon realizing it was abandoned. Then comes verse 9, quoted above, in which they realize it is not right to not share the good news with the rest of the people.

   Likewise, we who know of the good news, the hope, the way, the truth, and the life...Jesus...we cannot plunder the riches for ourselves. We all, whether we acknowledge it or not, have a desire, a need, to tell our brothers and sisters about the hope that we have found. In the sermon in which I heard this story from 2 Kings a few weeks ago, it was also quoted, "Evangelism is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to get a piece of bread."
 
   This is the day the Lord has made, a day of good news! For, among all the lies and doubts and fears and loneliness and busyness and darkness that cloud our every day...there is fellowship and hope and life and peace when we simply reach out for it. Reach out today.