Praise, Gratitude, and Love

On April 19th, merely two weeks away, I will be leaving my job, home, friends, and family to strengthen my relationship with God and Truth.  For 6 months, myself and 20 other people will be in ceaseless prayer.  The purpose of this experience is to serve my family, my community, and society to my fullest potential.  The foundation that is established over this 6 month timeframe will give me the capacity to live from a place of Praise, Gratitude and Love.  When that's present, my natural gifts and talents can be applied in whatever way the Holy Spirit moves.  Only then can we share that gift with the people in our lives.  

Why am I asking for help?  

This training begins before we ever arrive.  I'm sure I've been preparing for it my entire life; even though I didn't know it then.  

I've always been very self-reliant.  To a fault, some would say.  The belief that I can control my circumstances and outcomes has driven me for the greater portion of my life.  Naturally, I believed that I could fund this experience in the same way.  Everything was lined up perfectly until last week...

In three days time, I lost two contracts ($3,200) and I received a hefty bill from the IRS from 2015 (total impact of ($4,562).  

Losing $8,762 seemed like a sign that I wasn't meant to be there.  It completely derailed the plan I'd so carefully crafted. 

I immediately began to try and figure out how I could fix it.  How I could make it work.  Once I realized that I couldn't, I called to let my teacher know.  She suggested that perhaps this loss was a gift.  When she said that, I recalled a message that my pastor, Mark Knight, has been speaking on recently.  Despite all of our talents, gifts, and resources, we can't do it alone.  God doesn't break his promises, but we can't realize them on our own!

Maybe the lesson here was that Daniel can't do it on his own.  Maybe it's time for Daniel to surrender and ask for help.

So that's what I'm doing.  The money will be used to supplement what I already have to cover the following:

- Cost of the experience 
- Support for my son and his mother
- Emergency fund 
- Toiletries and personal items for 6 months
- Care for my dog, Keno

This is hard for me to do.  And that's why I believe it's necessary.  I don't like rejection.  I don't like needing help.  I don't like admitting that I can't do it all.  

The difficult and liberating Truth is that, no, I can't do it on my own.  I never could; I just believed it to be so.  

I have deep Gratitude for help that comes in any way; financially, sharing the campaign, offering a prayer, or a kind word.  

This is my calling to serve.  Thank you for reading and I'm happy to discuss or answer questions for anyone interested. 

You can learn more about the pracitce I'll be learning to teach by visiting www.ishaya.info.