Hi friends,

Blessings to you all!  Its been rather quiet around here for the past few months, so I wanted to give a brief update on what has been going on with my family and me, and how that has been, and will be, affecting my blogging in this new year.  Last I posted was the end of November. Then came December…and then came January!

December is typically a very busy month in our household with all the preparations and activities of the Christmas season, my daughter’s birthday ten days before, out-of-state family traditionally visiting the week of Christmas through to New Years, and the like.  This year was all of that and more.  As for blogging, I had initially hoped to finish the series on “Centrality and Expectation” during December, but there was simply no window to give it the time it needed.  I figured I had no choice but to bump it into the New Year.

Two days after Christmas, however, we got a call that my mother (91) had been taken to the ER with a serious infection and difficulty breathing.  Further evaluation showed that her heart had been severely stressed from her condition as well.  After a number of days in ICU, it became clear that she was not responding well to the interventions and that only heroic measures could possibly prolong her life.  As a family, we made the decision for palliative care and had her transferred to the Hospice Unit of the hospital.  She was made as comfortable as possible, and passed peacefully within six days.

My wife and I have been primarily responsible for overseeing her care and affairs for the past 17 years, and so a large part of the after-death arrangements fell on our shoulders.  Needless to say, that has overwhelmed and overshadowed this past month.  It will also continue to define at least the first part of this year as I assume the role of executor of her will and estate.

Personally and spiritually my family and I are doing well and have sensed God’s abundant grace through this time of loss. We also have the assurance that my mother is now with the Lord in a much better place. We have had to reprioritize much of life, though, in the midst of this difficult and demanding time.

That being the case, I am also having to revamp my plan for blogging for the near future.  If all had gone as I had originally hoped, I would have finished the last two parts of “Centrality and Expectation” before the year’s end and begun the new year with a fresh series of posts called “Affirmations.”

That series was actually written five years ago, a year before I began blogging, as the result of a personal spiritual exercise I engaged in to begin the New Year then.  In short, I prayerfully wrote down a collection of concise affirmations of some of the most essential truths concerning the Eternal Purpose of God, Christ, and the Church, according to my deepest convictions. That was a first step in making a fresh commitment to those realities in my life in that coming year.  As I looked over those writings again recently, I realized that they would also serve well now as a series of posts to give a summary of the basic, Christ-centered truths that I have been blogging about for the past four years.

Since these writings are all but “publish-ready”,  I am going to begin with an (actual) introductory post next week and then publish the seven additional parts of the “Affirmations” series over the next few months.

If during that period I am able to find some time to finish up the previous series as well, I will do so, or possibly intersperse some additional posts into the mix, but I will have to take that as it comes. Family matters will need to come first.

In closing, I’d like to say that last year was an especially difficult and trying year and it seems that this year could now be dauntingly heading in a similar direction.  Additionally, there is a specific warfare that comes from blogging, especially relating to the core spiritual truths of the centrality and preeminence of Christ in all things.  I have considered even hitting the pause button on this blog for six months or so to possibly minimize that while I go through the difficult and sensitive process of settling our parents’ estate.  Time is too short, though, and the situation in the world and in the Church far too critical to not keep pressing on in sharing what God has put on my heart for those who read and follow this blog.  My gut tells me that this year, on a national and global scale, is going to be nothing short of cataclysmic and transformational, and that we must all diligently redeem the time for the days are evil.  I would ask, therefore, that you would please pray for my family and me, especially over the next few months.  That would be greatly appreciated!

It is my hope that this post finds you well, and that God’s grace will be with you in abundance throughout this coming year!

Love and peace in Him!
~David