Life is meant to be lived in one direction.....

Hello!!

In precisely a week, I will be in Gainesville, Georgia for another awesome three days in the presence of the Lord of Lords surrounded by over 10,000 people who share my love for this God.

I will be at Forward Conference 2011 and this will be my third year in a row!!

It is truly a life changing, mind altering conference that either reinforces your relationship with God, restores that relationship or introduces that first tentative step toward a relationship. The first two have definitely been my testimony. The atmosphere is electrifying - there's no pretense, no guile...just pure unadulterated worship! Other than the incessant "cupid shuffle" song that is played at every session, it absolutely ROCKS!

And bonus for me - TobyMac is going to be there this year! OMG!!

The speakers are absolutely terrific! Judah Smith, a pastor from Seattle, WA, is ridiculously iced! His podcasts are amazing! Christine Caine is a woman who doesn't mince words when it comes to getting to the heart of the matter! She spoke last year as well and her passion definitely rubbed off on me! Reggie Dabbs...oh Reggie! Forward's moderator/motivator/minister with a great story! Just to mention a few. Oh!and Jentezen Franklin (he's the only person I follow on twitter)!!

Conferences like these are very important because it's great to know that outside your own tight-knit community, there's a host of people out there who look nothing like you, come from different backgrounds, but you have one key thing in common: Jesus Christ!

Life is meant to be lived in ONE direction.............FORWARD!!!!

Abba

It has indeed been a rough two months for me.

But I am thankful and grateful it's over. I am now in relative relaxation at an audit training in a nice enough location with zero noise and sane hours.

I've been thinking about my dad lately. Don't know why but it's been more consistent now more than ever. Maybe it's because June 12 is just around the corner or July 7 is exactly one month from today...not sure. But it's there.

I see women my age with their dads (at least I hope it's their dad!) drinking ice tea at this country club I'm staying in (or whatever it is) and it transports me back to when I was 4 or 5 years old. I couldn't be older than that. I was sitting on my dad's lap and he was singing to me. He was singing to me with that signature wide smile on his face and I remember feeling like a princess in her kingdom with my daddy holding the reins! I am special. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I had his undivided attention. Only God knows what he had going on and as a 22 year old, knowing what I know now about what was going on then, he had a LOT going on. It was 1993.

My father has been gone for 13 years (in a month) and it still stings sometimes when I think about some things.

But...

I have a Father. This Father made my father- with all his imperfections, shortcomings, pros, cons he was a great and mighty man. How much more the One who created this man? This Father has NO imperfections, no issues, no tantrums, all pros, no cons. He's always there for me - He has me in the palm of His hand and He's singing to me, calling to me every second of every day. He knows the hairs on my head! His thoughts towards me are always thoughts of good....Always! Even when I mess up as we humans are prone to do, He somehow makes it work together for my good! How incredible is that? Knowing that there's nothing that He wouldn't do for you. Nothing! If a God can sacrifice His only son for the sake for humanity; to reconcile man back to God, then you've got to be sure that nothing's too big for Him to do for you.

He's cooler than any dad! He's everlasting! He can be anything that you need at any given time - Rapha, when you need healing, Jireh when you need provision, Shalom when you need peace, Rohi when you need Him to be the shepherd over your life, Shamma when you need his presence...I could go on and on.

But, for me, the most profound aspect of this God that I love this most is this:

He's Abba.