Why I'm Writing

The past three years have been rough. We moved back to Nashville in 2019 and within about a year the tornado hit and we were displaced when COVID started. Good times. Then I had back-to-back COVID infections and we had to move out of our house with toxic mold while I still dealt with long COVID symptoms. There's a lot more I could discuss here but I'll save that for another post another time. This time period was a pretty rough round of punches that I'm still recovering from. I distinctly remember one of the last nights in our old house after Gwen was in bed Joel and I were packing things up and asking each other if we'd made a mistake moving to Nashville. Lots of signs pointed to yes. But we weren't ready to give up yet.

By the time we sold the house and made it to last summer I was extremely sick, barely functional and exhausted. We dragged ourselves and what was left of our belongings into my parents' house where we'd live for the summer. I walked back to my old bedroom and there on the bed was a note in an envelope with my name on it. Not what I expected. 

Inside was one of the most beautiful gifts I've received in the last three painfully difficult years. One of my mother's longtime friends was awakened in the night a few weeks before we arrived with me on her mind and she just started writing - it was a letter to me from the Lord. Tears filled my eyes as I read how the Lord loved me, cherished me, and was still working on a good plan for my life. Inside this letter was also a call to write - no specifications about what to write, just that He wanted me to start writing again. 

I've been writing songs and journaling and writing poetry since I was a kid. Since last summer I've journaled some and written a few songs that I hope to share soon. But last night I laid awake for awhile with so many thoughts and realized it was time to fire up a blog again. 

Here, you won't find intellectual thoughts on foreign policy, book reviews, home decorating tips or great recipe ideas (I really try, but my sub-par cooking skills are hard-won and far from innate!). Instead, you'll find posts with thoughts, feelings and experiences around what it's like to be a Christian trying to stay thankful and believe for the best in a world full of pain, suffering and heartache. 

Why the name Honeycomb? About four years ago a pastor friend of our family was visiting our church. After the service he came up to me and shared a word he believed was from the Lord. He said, "Your life is like a honeycomb where you have turned the bitter things and bitter seasons of your life into sweet. And now you are like the honeycomb structure where you can expand and deposit it into others' lives and bring sweetness to their lives." That's what I hope to do here. Life can try its best to make us jaded and bitter, but I hope you find sweetness here.