Not Wasting a Save

Introduction
Here it is: I wrote these words when I began to journal on my quest to find God in my life. My goal was to find Him active in the victories, as well as, in the defeats while trying to understand the role He plays. Along the way I began to discover the saves He extends to us all and the importance of using them for good. It’s bringing the spotlight on God as you grow in your faith and begin to see Him in a different way.

I’ll take you on my journey of the twists and turns that have led me to where I am today. Sitting here anxious about exposing it all—how God has chased me down, intercepted on my behalf, and how His grace has led me to this very spot, this place of kneeling before the cross—is a little difficult for me. To reveal in these moments that my life is not perfect, that I don’t have it all together, and that sometimes you have to walk away from the closed doors, is a humbling prospect. But one that’s hopefully worth sharing.

This journey has included many of the finest of moments that I would never trade, whether I noticed at the time or not. When things are going well, we remain on autopilot and don’t give much thought to the how's and why's of our good fortune. You may not even think that God is intercepting on a daily basis on your behalf or fully comprehend that His love is greater than anything you could ever imagine. These interceptions, or what I call detours, are intended to get us back on track. They’re second chances or life savers, in my case. I reflect back on how many times things didn’t go my way and how disappointed I was in not getting the answers I thought I needed. But now, years later, I recognize that those disappointments were best for me, that the detour given was a better way.

This book is about those detours, road blocks, and lifesaving moments, which led me on my journey to the cross in finding my faith. He has shown great mercy, given much grace, and extended me supernatural patience. It’s taken forty-plus years to get my footing on solid ground and striving to “get it right.” This I do know: When my heavenly Father calls me home, upon entering the pearly gates, the words I want to hear are “Joy, it was a rough start but you finished strong, job well done!” That is why I’m here, this “call out” to be humble and to extend my faith to others in order to help them on their path. It’s called “giving your testimony” in sharing your faith and your journey. By sharing one’s life and faith—the good, the bad, and the ugly—it can bolster the faith of someone else. To not share what God has done for me would be “wasting a save,” many saves, in His efforts to chase me down and the countless moments of Him carrying me through each and every one of them. We will also follow people of the Bible whose lives, in certain situations, often parallel our own. We share a common struggle with doubt, fear and detours in our faith, when it’s difficult to just trust God’s intentions for our lives.

I hope that you can be honest with yourself and relate to the similarities between life’s worries and fears of these biblical characters with your own. The goal of this book is to communicate that life is not perfect, situations happen, wrong choices are made, but through all of them, there is hope that each day offers a new start. As in Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” I hope that as you engage with my journey and those of the bible, you connect with God on a deeper level and discover your true faith. I pray that you recognize the nudges or little moments of grace that would otherwise go unnoticed and acknowledge Him in a way that is different than before.

God gives us hope to strengthen our faith, to believe in the unseen—and that, my friend, is where changes in your life begin. It changes our very existence here on earth—or at least it did in mine. I hope you find and experience hope through my journey, through my testimony and believe in His mercy and accept His grace when given. Acceptance is the first step in believing that His plan is for good no matter what happens, no matter what the circumstances are. That’s hard to say and I have to repeat it every day to remind myself of this great love.

So here it is…it was a simple question of me asking if He could see little ‘ole me just standing in the road. And what I found is He did. This is me not wasting a save. It’s a few of my situations, my wrong and right choices and everything in between… where He saved me on my journey to the cross. So walk with me, friend; I want to share with you this great love that is here and introduce you to a Father who walks with you daily. Take my hand, let’s go.