This past weekend I graduated from Aidan University’s certification process to become an American Chaplain Association fully accredited Chaplain.

Our commencement speaker was Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. M.L. King Jr. She has a rather impressive resume’, yet is such a down-to-earth, easy-to-talk-to person. Yet in all that she speaks with authority.

The journey continues. I now have a release date on my book for the 8th of August. It will be in Barnes & Nobles, Amazon (also in ebook), Walmart, and the TBN website, or maybe it’s the Trilogy Publishing site.

So, as I sit here posting this I find I’m blessed beyond measure, but I must tell you as someone who is transparent. My wife says many times I tell people too much. Being this way is not to puff up my chest. I have no itch to preach, nor speak of myself, except that which Christ has blessed me with.

Success doesn’t come without failure and I’ve had plenty of that. Someone posted on FB this week from my friend list that they felt like giving up. My response was that Thomas Edison spent a year and a half and some 10,000 attempts before he made a viable inexpensively producible light blub. Still, he was not the first to invent the light bulb. Just the first one to produce an inexpensive, viable public-use light bulb. Just like Henry Ford. He was not the first to build a car. His real claim to fame was reproducible parts assembled on a line to build huge numbers of cars. None of this came without failure.

Some of you that read my blog come from backgrounds where you have seen failure. I’m also vulnerable. I have written before about crashing and burning almost fifteen years ago from severe depression and suffered panic attacks. Anxiety is a killer when it comes to failure. I still have bouts of depression, even in the midst of successes. Don’t let the downside overtake your upside. Never give up on yourself. Remember that God gave His Son to reestablish a relationship with you. Why? Because He wants communication with someone He cares for without end. My response is I want the exact same thing with Him. It’s that simple.

The message of salvation is so simple. If you feel you have a relationship with God but feel not quite there, it’s time to find out why. Stop and reprioritize. Eternity is an endless time to gain out of it with the serenity of knowing nothing will change with that kind of relationship. That’s so reassuring that it should make all the failures here seem so small compared to the successes that will be our reward.

So far my life has seen the manifestation of the things that God told me I would accomplish. For decades I have pursued God in ministry and became ordained. Now I have gained status not only as a Chaplain, but now I’m an author. It isn’t much compared to some, but it is what God told me I’d see for myself. No one can take that away. What is out there for you? Are you pursuing it? If not, why?