Solace Prayer Blog is now live!

Imagine this scenario with me - imagine you are actually holding still enough and focusing enough and listening enough to hear God's whisper. Like Peter on the roof in Joppa, imagine God gave you a vision. In your vision you were standing before the Lord in his throne room in all his majesty. Imagine he rose from his mighty throne, stepped down to the floor where you were kneeling, picked you up, and invited you to walk with him in his heavenly garden. As you walked out into the garden, the Lord turned you by your shoulders, looked into your eyes, and spoke. Imagine what he would say. What would he say to you?!

I have no idea what the Lord would say to you. Maybe he would say, "Quit trying to be more valuable to me. I will never love you more or less than I do now, and I love you completely." Or maybe, "Stop making excuses regarding the assignment I've given you." Or perhaps, "Quit sinning and your life will be better." Or quite possibly, "I am proud of you. I love you. And that's enough for you." Whatever the Lord chooses to say to you is good. I don't know exactly what he'd say to you, but I want you to find out!

That's what Solace is to be about - Solace will be a sanctuary that offers renewal through an encounter with the Lord.

I'm excited to offer this prayer blog, and I'm so grateful to you who have committed to join us before our Lord on behalf of this ministry. Solace is still in its inception, but the Lord is directing Sarah and me every day as we pray and dream and have conversations. While things are moving slower than we'd like, we are more certain than ever that the Lord desires this ministry, and in his grace he is allowing us to participate.

The past few weeks have been filled with talking and dreaming, writing and deleting, trusting and second-guessing. I even had an anxious freak out session with Sarah the other day. I had to repent to the Lord and apologize to my wife the next day! Both the Lord and my wife were gracious with me! But we are truly learning to abide in him, and most of the time we rest in trust.

This week, we'll continue considering what this ministry might look like. How might it begin? How can we best align Sarah's passion for hospitality and service with my conviction to draw people nearer to the Lord? Here's a short list of a few items that we will tackle in the next few days:

- We will soon begin the work of launching the 501(c)3 and LLC to offer the legal construct for the ministry.

- I plan to approach individuals asking them to consider serving on an advisory board for the ministry.

- On Friday, I plan to survey a 115-acre property on Lake Bridgeport. The owner would like to use this property for ministry, so I'll join Dr. Matthew LaGrange to see if this might be a fit for his ministry and/or Solace.

- I have a long list of conversations I need to have.

- We'll be making minor repairs to our house at the recommendation of our realtor so that it will be ready to sell the moment the Lord might give us that directive.

- Sarah and I are deep in consideration about securing supplemental income in the meantime. Sarah has an interview as a part time personal assistant on Tuesday, and I am enjoying driving for Uber in the wee hours. (Seriously, I really enjoy it!) We are also thinking about selling off some children. We'll take a look at the offers.

So what can you pray about, you ask? Take your pick! However you are led to petition the Lord on behalf of Sarah and me and all those with whom we share this conviction. Your prayer is greatly appreciated!