Stephen De La Vega

My son participated in a community-wide summer youth orchestra and concert. During his practices I went to the gym after dropping him off. One week when I entered the locker room to stow my gear, I noticed a man looking a bit lost. There were other men nearby, but for some reason, he approached me and told me his lock didn’t fit on the lockers. He’d been trying a locker with a bent padlock loop so I tested his lock on another locker…right next to my usual one. It worked and he was pleased and thankful. On my next visit to the gym, I noticed his lock on my favorite locker. “Really?,” I thought. “Of all the lockers in this room, he took mine?” I saw him after my workout and we chatted a bit. His name is Will. I found out he usually exercises in a gym 15 miles south of mine, but his daughter was also in the same summer orchestra as my son. (Still, I wondered why he chose my locker.) The third time I saw him at the gym (using my locker), I handed him an announcement car...

Just over a year ago I published my first blog post:  Even on Garbage Day, God Loves Us . 22 posts later, it’s still one of my favorites. I didn’t know what to expect when I launched my blog. Questions circled in my head. The most important: Does God want me to do this? Let me first say thank you for reading. You have truly been kind and faithful readers. I appreciate you all, and I hope my blog has been as meaningful for you as it has been for me. I plan to keep writing. My commitment is to write until God tells me to stop. …until God tells me to stop . That’s a loaded phrase, maybe packed with assumptions. God has different plans for each of us, but can we really know what He wants us to do…specifically? What has God planned for us? How can we know the path He designed for each of us? Here’s what I discovered: God is actively telling us His plan. Knowing it is easier when we listen and watch. Ears that hear and eyes that see – the LORD has made ...