A five year diary! I have often seen them and am assured how good they are for referencing this year against previous years, but my devotional diary - the only diary I keep - has become a two year diary in that it is two years since my last entry. That is not to say that nothing important has happened in my spiritual experience during that time - far from it!! It is just that events which would be entered into a normal daily-life record have crowded out time to write because those events have been so all consuming of commitment in time and energy - tragic family bereavement and a variety of serious illnesses for ourselves and other family members.
The first entry for two years notes those happenings very briefly giving place to relate the deep lessons in faith and hope and love which we have gained from them. That, of course, is the purpose of a devotional diary. I love that country expression "going to the far end". It often means travelling to the end of a no-through road terminating in the hills at the last farmstead for many miles. Personally and as a family we have been to the far end of life experiences these past two years year - and there we have found God in deeper and richer experiences of him. We have grappled with unanswerable questions, fears and personal weaknesses learning all the time how we can trust God with both the great and minute details of our lives and again and again being amazed at his gracious care and provision as well as his right-to-the second timing. We have discovered more of what it means to live close to him in Jesus - to live in the Spirit - to live by faith - to live on God's timetable. We have proved how resurrections do not come without crosses and how crosses always have the promise of resurrections! The diary entry is one of thanks and of praise. It is a testimony to all we have been through and the fact that our Lord has never let us down.
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