“We have different gifts according to the grace given us.” Romans 12:6
As the wind whipped my hair around my face, I wanted to pinch myself. I knew I wasn’t dreaming but it sure felt like it. I was standing in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, the same sea where my Jesus had walked across the water toward His disciples. I was afloat on the same sea where Peter, the bold one, had stepped out of the boat in faith before he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. I closed my eyes and tears slipped silently down my face as I pictured my Savior walking toward me on the wind-tossed water. I felt His presence and I was overwhelmed with joy.
That was in March 2010 when I, along with 44 other pilgrims from Claremore FUMC, traveled to the Holy Land for a 10-day journey that led us on many of the same paths that Jesus and His disciples had traveled. Although we experienced a variety of sights, sounds, smells and tastes of this ancient land, the boat ride on the Sea of Galilee was the trip highlight for me. It was a place I never thought I’d be standing, and I knew that my Lord had been there before me.
Since rededicating my life to Jesus in October 2001, I have been surprised by the paths God has led me on. Although I have experienced success in other areas of my life as a former high school teacher, professional photographer and freelance writer, I never envisioned myself as a columnist, especially a faith-based columnist.
However, God had other plans for my life. After retiring from a 30-year high school teaching career in 2005, God led me to Claremore within two months. I could count on one hand the number of people I knew here. I was content living in a small town on Grand Lake in Delaware County, where I knew a host of people from all walks of life through my teaching and photography careers. God had to get me out of my comfort zone so I could grow spiritually.
I have always loved the written word, using my talent to pen poetry and essays and write newspaper and magazine articles. Relocating to a new community led me to pursue passionately the spiritual gift with which God has blessed me. I began writing “A Matter of Faith,” a weekly column, in the fall of 2005. My columns take an honest, and sometimes humorous, look at the struggles we all have with fears, uncertainty, self-esteem and relationships, as well as life’s joys and surprises. Since that time, I am humbled to say that my self-syndicated column has been picked up by 12 Oklahoma newspapers. In 2011, an online Christian publication, www.assistnews.net, with worldwide readership, began carrying “A Matter of Faith.”
My life’s mission is to use my writing to glorify our Heavenly Father. I hope readers will come to know God and His love in a deeper way. My columns are not about religion but about a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior. By sharing my testimony and that of others, I pray that, you, my readers will find encouragement and hope and can become all God created you to be.