Day One

                                                                                                        Day One

                                                                                    It's day one of the rest of my life

                                                                                   It's day one of the best of my life

                                                                    I'm marching on to the beat of a brand new drum

                                                                                                Yeah, here I come

                                                                                             The future has begun

These are some of the lyrics to Matthew West’s song called ‘Day One’. In my own life I can remember a few distinct ‘Day Ones’ with many new beginnings like my early first days of school, first day of finding a new sport that gave me incredible confidence, first day of high school, first day of no school, first day of college, first day of being married, and the best was the first day I was a Mother.

In many ways we don’t forget these ‘Day Ones’ because they mean something special, something that stands out from the rest of our life. In much of that we also understand ourselves a little different by digging deeper into who we are. In many ways we are ‘marching to the beat of a brand new drum’.

No matter how old we are we draw from within to find the courage and confidence to do something new. When we were younger we did it because we were told to do it. As we got older it was a little scarier because we made a conscious decision to do something new and have another ‘Day One’.

‘Day One’ has a new meaning for me especially as I remember the last 10 years of my life and the drastic changes it brought to my life. The meaning it had was even more profound as my new ‘Day One’ was struggling with a change that came over me. That change meant something to the medical community in terms of diagnosis’s and yet as I understand it today, God was sending me on the journey to really feel and experience the difficult place many people with depression, bipolar, trauma and a life threatening physical diagnosis  feel.

I had experienced something so profound I couldn’t understand what happened to me especially as I didn’t have any faith or God in my life but I made the transformation. That struggle was ‘Day One’ of what I was supposed to learn and begin to develop into a ‘calling’ to help others, but, not in the traditional sense in the clinical world.

I have been doing this as ‘I’m marching on to the beat of a brand new drum’ trying to fit into a world that does not understand the true meaning of why someone goes into a crisis or how to help them on their journey.

As Jesus died for us, I also died in my own way to bring me to this powerful place to help others. This passion is so strong and has become so clear in what he wants me to do, I almost don’t understand it. I guess it is similar to the journey God sent to Noah as he built the Arc. For me, I need to build a place where people can hear my passion and hear my voice of HOPE and be a true overcomer.

One of my last few ‘Day Ones’ I can remember was about 6 months ago, sitting in church and hearing the ‘calling’. This calling was loud and clear and I was told I am supposed to be up there (at the altar) and find an abandoned church and do what I do at The Support Place Where HOPE Lives. This didn’t make any sense to me until I really thought of how he is guiding me to meet new people, take away some things in my life and to have the faith I will be finding the people who can help me get there. And, maybe it will be ‘Day One’ to meeting new people who really need to meet me.

As I reached out to some new spiritual people, they all told me I am already ministering. Yes, I am, and as I begin to acknowledge this and see how much I yearn to learn more about faith, God and the bible, I have decided to go to school to become a person that shares the word of God and my life experience.

The most recent ‘Day One’ happened last week and it is so clear what the message is for me as I was sharing new plans for The Support Place very passionately with a friend on my Bluetooth driving to work in a hospital and when I hung up and turned on my favorite Christian radio station, these ‘Day One’ lyrics spoke loud and clear to me:

                                                                                             Day One

                                                                        It's day one of the rest of my life

                                                                       It's day one of the best of my life

                                                      I'm marching on to the beat of a brand new drum

                                                                                     Yeah, here I come

                                                                                  The future has begun

Then I realized, all the ‘Day Ones’ in my life have prepared me for this day, just as it was meant to. “Yeah hear I come the future has begun’

God is good…

Amen