MOVING ON UP!

Moving on up! Literally, about 25 miles up the Garden State Parkway! Sarah and I recently made the official move to Ocean City, New Jersey, where we are presently calling 10th & Boardwalk our home. I know the season is changing, which will slow the pace of life around here, but it’s still pretty cool to be living above the boardwalk,  where the beach makes up our front lawn!Now here is the amazing grace about this place. When I first got out of prison ,over a year ago, and my new life as I knew it began--as far as I was concerned—Ocean City was not in the picture. I mean, why would it be? I had more of a connection in Philadelphia with my 2 older brothers residing and having businesses there, and the rest of my family being in Cape May Court House, NJ, and Sarah’s being in Wildwood Crest, NJ. Trust me, Ocean City was just not on the radar.But Sarah on the other hand, was always quick to bring up Ocean City as our future home away from home. Wishful thinking of course. “One day,” she would say, “Some day far away,” she would pray, “Maybe when we get old and grey.” Well, she didn’t exactly say it like that, but she was very adamant about considering this area in the far away future. We honestly had no idea what life would look like at that time, but I will tell you this much, I knew what favor looked like over time.  God’s favor had been overwhelmingly on my life before, during, and immediately after prison. Still, I was unsure what I would be doing for a living, knowing only as much as hope allows you to know, which is always enough. You see, when you have hope, you will always have a future.Anyway, God has yet again provided in ways only He could. Not only did He allow me to be an employee of a thriving church, where my job description is to be about my Father’s business like Jesus, but He has moved my beautiful wife and I only a few blocks away from where it’s our honor to tell the story of redemption—Coastal Christian Ocean City.I say all that to say this. I remain completely humbled by how God continually provides for my bride and I.  We deserve nothing, yet God continually gives us everything.  I often wonder why He has chosen to be so gracious to me. “Who am I, O Lord, that You would be mindful of me and take me this far?” (2 Samuel 7:18)And He always answers deep down in my heart,  “You are no longer a slave, but a child.  My child!”