This is the beginning of Collective Connections.  What are Collective Connections?  Simply put, it is a blog series.  I do not know how long it will be or even if it will end.  Maybe this is a 5-day path.  Maybe it is a 2-month journey.  It could be years – I really don’t know.   My story to date, is 51 years long.  That is how old I am. For 43 of those years, I spent wandering like the Israelites, worshiping false gods, witnessing God’s miracles and questioning His authority.  Unsure of what I was seeing and witnessing while unsure of His chosen leaders.   

Here is my plan to deliver Collective Connections to you:  

I will be taking the God given insights I have been given and putting them together in connective order intertwining them with my thoughts and my story to show you how God has presented himself to me to share with you.  My plan is to GIVE this to you in post format at least once a week.  Welcome to Collective Connections.

What I have determined is there are 3 primary areas that we need to focus on to recovery from trauma of any sort and or just plain old be a better self-improved person.  So, it’s not just for people with BIG problems.  It is for ALL.  Collective Connections is for ALL.  This is for both those who need to recover from trauma and for those who do not have trauma and “go about life with your standard traversing of life issues.” Collective Connections is about the middle road.  Collective Connections is about the work we must do in order to be more like Jesus.  

For the record there is a fourth area of focus but that comes after the primary 3.  Yes!  I am leaving you with a Cliff Hanger.  Hopefully I can get to the fourth area before you forget I told you there is a fourth area.

Here are the 3 primary areas of focus we should have as a design:

1. Faith
2. Fruit
3. Gifts

As you can see, it’s a long story.  We need to star with Faith first before we can get to the gifts.  Sorry for anyone who may disappointed.  I did say we are going to talk about gifts.  And we are!  Here is the thing.  We all have the gifts.  We think we know how to use them, but we really don’t.  Let me give you an example:

Phil was 30 years old and had the world in his hands, so he thought.  He was married to the most precious beautiful wife that loved him dearly no matter his faults.  He had a brand-new spec home house, 2 cars in the garage plus his sales vehicle in the driveway.  In addition, there were two motorcycles in the garage.   The married couple were dinks.  Double Income No Kids.  Phil had a great job and so did his wife.  They were secure in their financial life and things couldn’t be any more Rosie!   They even had an awesome dog!  Now what?

Phil stood in his driveway dreaming about how he could modify his new home with projects and finishing the basement.  He would stand outside and just stare at the house saying to himself this is so awesome.  I am a success!  I did it!  

Then he had this thought.  “I have all this, Now what do I do?”  I’ll write a book was his thought.  Phil loved his hometown and the surrounding area.  Billy Joel even wrote a song about it.  “And where living here in Allentown”.   There truly was this culture in our area that we loved our lives, our families and the area we lived in. There was this internal resolve that we were never going leave our town.  God would provide for us and that is where our family’s where and we believed it so much weren’t leaving even if we lost our jobs.   This is Faith! 

Now maybe you can’t SEE God in this little example, but can you see FAITH?  

This is where we will start our journey together.

WELCOME TO COLLECTIVE CONNECTIONS!