If you like “Trading Places” as much as I do, you’ll know the reference to the title for my post today.
It’s 2011, the second year the Rangers will make it to the World Series and the first time they win.
I’ve never been great at making predictions.  I hope 2011 changes for me.
On December 1st, I wrote that my plan was to shut this blog down at the end of the month.  Well, here it is January 3rd and another post is up.  Go figure.  I started the blog to chronicle a journey I have been traveling and when I started, no one knew all that was going on within me and around me.  Today, more people know my story, know me and my failings, know the tragedy and heartache and have a better idea from where the words have sprung.  I started this blog as my journal, only for me.  I guess I realized other people might find it but I never have written for other people.  It’s not about what others should be doing to bring themselves into a closer walk with God, it’s all from me and for me.  When I re-read postings, they are words to myself and no one else…at least in my mind.  Yet, since I wrote those words on December 1st, I have been shocked (there is no other word) by the responses I have received about my blog, about the words written for me that helped someone else, about the pain, about the joy, about the suffering, about the healing that has been a part of my journey that also resonates with others.  To those who suggested I keep writing, you bless me.  You remind me of what God wants me to be reminded of; relationships and community.  You remind me that we are all more similar than different, that we all struggle and fall and that for those willing to admit the truth, we are there to help pick each other up, brush each other off and love each other without condition.  God reminds me of things He wants me to know through you.
So, here I go.  My blog posts won’t change in that they will still be written to me, to my lows and to my highs, about the valleys I walk through and the mountain tops I am astounded by.  It’s by me and for me, as always, but I also hope that God will continue to use it for anyone else who might benefit from it.

Grace and peace to you.