The Part of Your Story You Need the Most 

The part about raising a child successfully resonates with me the most. My son was 6 yrs. old when my alcoholic, drug-induced husband, my son's father, set our house on fire during a separation. I dedicated my son to the Lord when he was an infant, but from that moment on I was even more laser-focused on protecting him from anything that could harm him until he was ready to fly from the nest. In his early adult years I moved halfway across the country to be with my parents. After 12 years I felt the urgency to move back near home and my son and grandson. I have been back for a year, and it is the best move I ever made. I would not have chosen the part of my story that I previously mentioned. But if I had never married his father, I would never have had the gift of my son. The irony is that today is his birthday, and he's gone through some things in the year I've been back that have made me grateful for God's prompting to move back to be here to support and encourage him. No matter how old our children are, it's a gift to be able to continue building new memories with them and to give them wise counsel in close proximity. It's just not the same as doing it over a Zoom call. No matter what jobs I've had or what volunteer work I do, I will always feel that my greatest purpose in life was to be his mom.

To love is to be inconvenienced. That is a good thought for today and the weekend.

Wishing you all a day filled with inconvenience!… it’s a recurring theme! The greatest gifts I’ve ever received all came wrapped in black paper!🎁🎁🎁🎁

Yes, God’s calling often comes out of our suffering. Thanks for the reminder about inconveniences.

I just listed my life's top 3 "inconveniences". Never really thought about them, at least not that way. ALL of them turned out to be some of my richest blessings, giving meaning and purpose to my life.

Thank you many times over. My story has a lot of similarities and I needed to be reminded of that time and place and junction that changed everything.

Thanks again John for helping us see life as a story and why it matters.

❤Thank you again, John and team❤️ Have a beautiful day!

This is so beautiful!

Well this just stopped my heart in its tracks. Thank you John. What a mini-sermon with huge heart message. I’ll be pondering and writing this with God today about the story I don’t want. And how it is leading me into a unique calling. Blessings from me and the Trinity on your inconvenient and unwanted parts of your story, mine and our friends and family. ❤

Thank you I needed to hear this. This has been an amazing series!

Today is being a little difficult, partly because of the whole idea of purpose. I have - in a sense - given a respite for the past 5 years. I needed it. Now, it seems that I am being called back to what might be called "normal life." I'm OK with that, generally, but today... I can only wait with the unknown.

I recognize and appreciate how God has given me purpose in/for the difficult parts of my story. But sometimes those blessings feel like a consolation prize because what has been lost is such a core part of my being. Everyday is a lesson in learning to live abundantly with a dull ache that won't go away.

Love that book!!!

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So, so needed for me today.

John, I have listened to these little packages of hope for a couple of years now. I’m familiar somewhat with your story, as I to walk with a limp. This single 12:44 seconds was the ONE. The one. Finding purpose in “inconvenience” is not just brilliant but defining. I’m grateful for you and your struggles. Both have been instructive and healing for me. I pray that God will continue to inconvenience you (sorry) for the benefit of all of us who through many tears have watched God develop in you a soul worth emulating. Thank you and bless you! Much love!😊❤

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Applying these principles to my life in this moment of inconvenience… waiting for roadside assistance due to a tire blow out! It’s part of my story and allows me an opportunity to reflect on the road traveled to get here. Thanks!

I appreciate the perspective shift on our inconveniences. Definitely thought provoking and attitude transforming. The parts of my story that I don't like are probably the ones that matter the most.

Thank you JO for the prcise message I needed today🙂‍↕️. I listened to a George Macdonald sermon & loved him too❤ As always & ever, BN has been exactly what I need when I need it😊

This is a bomb going off in my convenient life and a modern faithless world of humans seeking convenience. But it's a bomb bringing light and hope despite all the "facts" of life and history. I'm reminded of Malcolm Muggeridge who once wrote. "Everything is true except the facts" and who said one of his favourite passages was from Shakespeares King Lear "No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage: When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness: so we’ll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out; And take upon’s the mystery of things, As if we were God’s spies: and we’ll wear out, In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon.

Thanks John. As a child with cancer i survived and thrived. It was inconvenient to live with my chronic health issues. I married a beautiful man, Steve, and took him to the end of his life. Ironically he died young from cancer and yet i still live.

In my Devotions today, there was a quote from some random😅 guy named Ortberg😂: "What pretensions have you been holding on to in your relationship with God and others? Queen of America, Thun-Dar the Girl Giant, Idol of Millions?" Made me take a hard look at myself. Thank you, JO❤❤

Thank you, this made me think of Esther 4:14...for such a time as this? As my dear husband has encouraged us(me) to step up to the plate at some of the junctions in life that lead to some of the hardest & happiest times and most rewarding for our souls that we've shared.

From Scotland. Just been getting into John really helpful stuff. Thank you!

Did John really say a character living during time of Bolshevik revolution thought going to America meant garage door openers and tv remotes????