Dear reader,
It has been a long time since I’ve written to you and I would like to apologize for the silence.
It was not intentional, yet I did choose to not write up until now.
You might be wondering why I’ve now chosen to write to you once again.
God has allowed a lot more things to happen, and as His son and messenger, I want to share with you the many joyous things He’s done and will continue to do.
I must be honest I have spent a lot of time with The Father this past year. I have cried, fought, and laughed more with Him than any other being on planet earth.
This letter is a bit of an apology and an intro as well.
I’m going to begin writing again more frequently.
WHOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
(I hope you read that with as much energy as I had when I typed it.)
I spent some quality time with God a week or so ago, and He greatly convicted me on how often I testify of His goodness and mercy.
He saved me from eternal damnation. I have redemption and righteousness in His name.
Yet it’s so much easier for me to converse about Spider-Man: No Way Home with my co-workers and pals.
No, I want to talk about God.
I want to talk about Scripture.
I want for it to be normal to talk about what God is actively doing in the story He so eloquently wrote before time began.
(All you teachers and grammar Nazis probably cringed super hard at that run-on sentence. I’m deeply sorry about that.)
Now, here’s the thing. I don’t like talking.
I’m not one to get up in a room full of people and just talk. I’m not wired that way.
But what I am wired to do is this…
Tell Stories.
I am here walking around in this little town out in the southeast part of Iowa to tell the greatest story ever told.
The Gospel.
I love the Gospel. But, I’m not the greatest at sharing it.
But, a wise man once told me “Practice makes better.”
I’m taking my Daddy’s advice and I’m running with it. I need to get better at sharing the stories that the Bible clearly lays out, but also share how God is clearly interwoven in every part of the story I’m walking out every day.
You cannot tell me God is not intricately involved in your everyday life.
If you don’t see it there might be some relational issues between the Creator of All Things and ______. <-(Place your name here.) I highly recommend that you stop now and go and talk with Him about that.
I am a firm believer in God giving His children gifts. For each person who is good at something, God masterly crafted them that way, and one gift I believe God has given me is storytelling.
Well, I purposely did not do that for a decent chunk of 2021.
I did not want to talk about what God was doing in my life because I was embarrassed.
2021 felt like a whole year of mess-ups, tripping and falling over objects in the dark, and God’s strong hand of discipline in my life. I did not want to share all of my failures.
Is that actually what happened?
NO.
Today write to you as transparent as I always have.
I am quick to show the junk in my story so I can point you to the evident redemption theme that God carries throughout every crack and crevice.
I am going to begin to recap and catch you up in my story up until this point. Again not everything will be shared, I don’t want gossip to be the reason you are reading this.
I have a lot of words overflowing from my heart and filling up my mind so these letters will come out a bit quicker than usual.
But, I am still human, so I’m not making any guarantees of due dates or consistency.
I think I shall end here, as I need to begin the next letter.
My word count is already ferociously high, if you’ve made it this far it honestly must be God’s providence.
Ta ta for now, I will speak with you soon.
-Mitchell
