The Transforming Your Story guidebook begins with a friend’s metaphor of gardening. Her tale intersected my story perfectly.  The subsequent chapters of the book mirror my own journey to offer a guide for others to begin the work of examining, categorizing and pulling the “weeds” of destructive emotions and thoughts that have crowded the garden of our heart, mind and soul after an abortion so that the healthy “vegetables” of hope that God has planted there can grow and nourish us and others.

After we labor in weeding our story it is appropriate to pause and look at the healthy planting that God has done as we worked and reflect on the goodness of what was done.  God did that when he created the earth and everything in it.  Each time He worked, he took a pause and said “it is good!” (Genesis. 1:9-31).   And He placed humans in the garden of his creation and invited them to continue to cultivate his land with Him. He knew the weeds were coming (Genesis. 3:6-7), and He had a plan to re-create or restore the goodness that was made. He knows that weeds come back, and that the garden needs continual tending.

Thomas Greene, author of “Opening to God: a Guide to Prayer” writes, “The first … encounter with the Lord is never a final, completely transforming revelation”.

Completion of Transforming Your Story is not a final discovery of God or ourselves. Rather, it is more of an initial encounter, an invitation to continue to draw near to the Lord, to explore or examine, continue to weed and continue to grow in character and relationship.

That is what this blog is about.  It’s about the journey that we continue in partnership with God to re-create or transform old habits and messages, how we view or experience past and present harms and how we live our stories out going forward. It’s about a lifestyle or ongoing process of transformation.

I have continued to hike and weed this ongoing path myself since my first spiritual encounter with a transforming God.  At times the journey has felt like a step forward, sometimes like a step back, and sometimes I’ve let the weeds grow until nearly blocking my way.  The journey has and is not taken perfectly. But I believe that being willing to try to practice what was learned and to learn new things is the important part.  Desiring to make progress, one day, or one moment at a time.

My prayer is that this blog will be somewhat of a continuation of the book.  But in monthly, bite-sized, and lighter chunks! I encourage you to pause and reflect and to respond to God’s invitation to continue to draw near, weed and grow.

Let’s Talk: How have you reflected on God’s goodness in the garden of your soul?  What might it look like for you to respond to God’s invitation to partner with Him in your ongoing story?

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