Why Blog?

SONLUVR became a lover and follower of Jesus Christ in July of 2000. It was my last 20-something year and I had experienced some success but my life was painfully out of order. I was a workaholic, living with my boyfriend, had no time for people, was falling apart physically due to too much ongoing stress, was emotionally volatile and high maintenance, and quite frankly I was on the expressway to premature death and an eternity in hell. Jesus Christ came "knocking at my door" through my very best friend. She had gotten "born again" and started telling me about her experiences, her new church, the bible, she would pray for me, etc. Honestly, I thought she was nuts.

My friend is one of those "extreme" people; you know the type, completely all or nothing with whatever is going on in their life that month. I remember thinking, "If she doesn't talking about something other than this Jesus guy, I'm not going to be able to talk to her anymore." Fortunately, and what I didn't know, is God was doing something in me--making me like Him! About a year into this journey with my friend, I visited her in Alaska. It was the vacation of a lifetime! Ten days of deep sea fishing, rafting down and salmon fishing on the Kenai River, camping in a remote location on a lake we flew to! It was amazing. The best part of the whole trip however was the visit to her church. Her pastor preached like a real person. The people there were non-judgmental and very warm and welcoming. The music was fun! There was so sleeping, no confusing rituals, no boring hymnals (although I love old hymns now!), and at the very end her pastor asked if there were people who would like to ask Jesus for forgiveness and welcome Him into their life. ME ME ME!!! There was something in me that couldn't wait to get to the front of that room and say a prayer in front of all those people.

That day, I laid down my fear and my pride and decided that I needed a Savior. I suddenly realized that almost my entire life flew in the face of what God designed me for and what He wanted. I was suddenly brightly aware of how mankind in general lives in complete rebellion to a loving God. And I made a simple decision to believe that Jesus really was a man, really was God's Son, that He lived to teach us, died and suffered in our place for everything we deserve, and revealed a power our earthly minds can barely comprehend in rising from the dead. "He lives" was once a weird religious lyric to me, but that day, somewhere deep inside me, I knew there was something to it.

The story of my life, my trials, my faith, and how I came to know (and continue to learn about) the love of my life, will be the content of this blog. My prayer is that God will use my words, my story, to bless you, encourage you, and lead some to Christ.