Throwing off the clutter...

... let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

With this post my blogging career begins. There is something special about first things. New beginnings, new adventures, new challenges... new. Through the rough times in our recent economic history my former career is ending. Bad home loans, people living over their heads with debt, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and falling confidence in markets have resulted in a slide in new home starts thereby leaving the building product business in the dust. With that, businesses do what they need to do to weather the storm. As with any storm there is collateral damage and lives get shaken up. As you process through events like these as they happen to you, your friends, or loved ones it can shake you to the core. As I have delt with my eventuality the storms have risen up, passed, and risen again. In their wake you learn about yourself and those who surround you. You learn that things do change in life and that others never change. That thing that doesn't change is the love of our Heavenly Father, Christ.

The photo, that tops this excerpt from my mind, was taken by my wildly talented daughter, Casey (11). The photo immediately made me think of the verse that sits below it. As we traverse this life we are hindered and entangled by people, circumstances, division, frustrations... the list could go on for days. Moving through these issues clutter us like the leaves clutter the lower steps. But as we throw off these weights, by focusing on Christ, the stairs clear and we lurch forward with a deeper faith. It is my intention and resolve to run the race he has set for me with an abandon that can only find peace in the unchanging love of God who loves me, and you, more than anyone or anything ever will.