A Faithful Journey

By Lynn Ludwick

With gusto and from memory, I recently praised God as “A Mighty Fortress.” For a fleeting moment I was transported to another time, another place, and stood beneath the stained glass windows of my childhood church. Much of my life centered on church during those early years—Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and youth group.

But when I was in my mid teens my family made a cross-country move and the new youth group didn’t suit me. A world devoid of spiritual underpinnings soon beckoned, and I yielded—though I never doubted God’s existence. Even during my Age-of-Aquarius period I occasionally prayed, self-serving though my prayers were. At its deepest level, my soul still sought truth as I wandered and plodded through a mire of confusion. My rebellion was minor by most standards, but my heart had turned from God nevertheless.

A second hymn that Sunday morning, “Just As I Am,” touched my heart and marked another milestone—the time when I quit running. Though I had turned from God, He had never stopped pursuing me, always wooing me back into His arms of love. When I finally responded, I grew to know Him on a personal level, to realize how close He’d always been and always would be. (“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5) I recalled threads of joy woven through my life—three children, good health all around, awesome family and friends. I also recalled threads of sorrow—the end of my marriage, a child who ran headlong into major rebellion, and later the death of my beloved father. And I thanked my Lord for guiding, leading and prodding, even when I didn’t desire or acknowledge it as such. He has blessed me and granted me more grace than I ever deserved or even recognized.

I don’t know how the rest of this journey called My Life will play out, but I stand on His promises and my experience that God has been faithful so far and will continue to be faithful in the future. When I have sought Him, and even when I haven’t, He was there.

Today and in the days ahead, I know with unquestioned certainty that God’s faithfulness will continue—through health issues and financial hardship, through emotional upheavals and family woes, through all that life throws my way. For God is my mighty fortress and will always accept me just as I am.

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the Lord, who remains faithful forever.” (Psalm 146:5-6)

Lynn Ludwick writes from Medford, Oregon. lynniegirl45@hotmail.com