At all Laity Lodge retreats, there is always some type of "artsy" component, and this time we were blessed to experience an encouraging writing workshop... This is the journal entry exercise that was to complete the starting words..."I am..."

I am from blessed family of LOVE between Mom & Dad…

            From the veiled history of not knowing the family beyond Mom & Dad.

I am from a family of doers that has joined with the beauty of being,

            A talent my wife continues to teach me.

I am a father to the fatherless that raised a strong man to love his son,

            The son that God blessed my wife with has taught me

            To speak with words rather than the tacit melody of music…

I am a husband that is blessed even though…

            I have wounded, ignored, belittled and even worse to my only wife.

            Only by grace is God’s love there for me from her…

I am a tuning fork that resonates with a melody of the spheres…

            With the complex harmony that teaches and compliments

            The simple melody that rings true in the universe of God’s Spirit…

I am a thought that comes to fruition from the response to Christ’s gospel…

            That sparks the inquisitive nature of my own untrusting faith

            To reach out and touch the wounds of the crucifixion…

I am a child of God that has the desire…          

            To lie in the lap of His loving arms…