California for Stefani

It is October 2nd already…boy this year is going by quickly.  Currently Doug is playing guitar and listening to worship music…my favourite sounds, now I just have to get him to use the 12 string instead of the boring 6 string HEE HEE HEE!!  My Halloween decorations are up along with some lights.  My skeleton isn’t hanging on the door yet, but that will come soon.  I have 25 shows on my PVR set to record during this TV season…gesshhhh…when did I get to watching that much TV?  Granted what else is there to do in the evenings.  Wanna know what shows?

Blue Bloods, Bones, Castle, Chicago Fire, CSI, Elementary, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, Hawaii Five-0, How I met Your Mother, Ironside, Last Man Standing, Agents of SHIELD, Mike & Molly, Modern Family, NCIS: Los Angeles, Parenthood, Sean Saves the World, Amazing Race, Big Bang Theory, Blacklist, The Crazy Ones, The Good Wife, Michael J. Fox Show, The Millers.  Some are new this season and some we have been watching for a number of years.  I like TV and it helps me escape reality.  It is nice to have some comedies on our list this season though, been a lot of drama’s on our list and a person needs a good laugh every so often.

I have been experimenting with recipes using my new multi purpose GF flour.  So far it has been going well.  You just sub it for regular flour and it should work.  Made tortillas today and they worked out pretty good.  I have been making bread for the last few weeks and that has been turning out really good too.  I use Coconut Sugar for most things that use regular sugar.  It is still a sugar but it has a lower glycemic index.  So far my sugar levels are doing very well and with the meds I am on, things seem to be doing ok.  Before our diet change, I was going to have to go on another diabetic drug, so I am happy that isn’t going to happen as I like the metformin I am on…works well and it is cheap (sort of).  My doctor was very happy with the results and was interested in what I was doing to help my diet along.  We have cut out drinking glasses of milk…all we have for milk products in the house is cream for the coffee and butter…those are two “must haves” in our house.  We use Soy Milk (organic and unsweetened) for our milk substitute.

Life is going pretty good and compare it to last year, it is going amazing.  I can’t believe how hard the last year and a half have been.  Sometimes I think we just about didn’t survive it…but thankfully we did.  It felt like it was never going to end and the light was never going to get brighter…but it did…phew!!!  We were thinking of moving from our current place, but thankfully we were able to work something out with our landlords to make it manageable for us to stay.  I like the place where we are for now.  I do want to move eventually, but all in it’s time.  Our rent includes utilities now, so now it doesn’t matter how much heat the person downstairs uses, or how often she does laundry.  Sure feels good to not have to worry about that now.  We built ourselves a very nice patio in the front yard and now we have some private space that is just ours.  Now I just have to work on our landlords to get us a front loading washing machine LOL.

I try not to get too worked up about politics these days…things get so frustrating when I read what is going on, both here and in the US.  Neither one of our countries seem to be managing to good…sigh…oh well…what can you do.  If nothing else, at least here in Canada, our government is still working and I can get sick, go to the hospital and not have to worry about paying for it.  Gotta focus on the positive and not the negative.  At least we live in a free country and if everything else is falling apart around us, our ability to worship God is still allowed and that is GREAT!!

So that is life right now…lots of things running through my head still about stuff, but not ready to put it down on paper (so to speak).  I always need time to get my thoughts in order so that they make sense.  Next month is our annual family trip to Tofino…and we get to bring along our niece again.  Love having Mikaela around in our lives…she makes me laugh and we can all use that in our lives. 

 I was inspired to write this after reading this post from a friend of mine

http://trentsfavoritethings.weebly.com/my-coming-out-story.html

I want to focus on a few things he wrote about what people told him because God told them to tell him that.

We grow up in a society that tells us not to question our parents or church.  You probably have heard to comment "obey your parents", etc.  That gives us no ability to actually come up with our own opinions and thoughts about things.  Church tells us that we are supposed to listen to their rules and regulations, and again, don't question it.  So we go through life being taught that if a brother sins...we are to talk to him "out of love" regarding that sin.  We have fallen for that a few times, and it backfired royally and actually caused Doug to have a stroke.

A story we heard from a friend of ours, years ago.  It was during a prophesy time and someone prophesied over a our friend...and then half way telling him what God told him...he then said..."I won't tell you the rest because I don't think you are ready for it"...ok...so if God told him to tell it to our friend, what happened?

So what if we were wrong about what we say to people "out of love".  We say that God told us to too you something, but what if our human minds get things mixed up and we didn't portray it the right way?  What if we talk to someone about their "sin" and it turns out it really wasn't a sin, just something that we think is wrong, but really, we are just being judgemental or just spewing things that our church/parents have told us and never questioned it.

We learned long ago (when Doug had his stroke), that we needed to learn to bite our tongue and when we talk to someone "out of love", that it better be positive things, encouraging and uplifiting.   If God wants someone to change their ways, I do think God is quite capable to manage that on his own.  He doesn't need us humans butting into each other's lives and telling each other what to do.  What one person considers a sin, may not be a sin to another.   I think there has to be some trust within our Christian community that we know what we are doing and that we can listen to God when we need some help in changing our ways.   If someone needs help, then I think that someone should ask for it...then talking to them "out of love" might be a way to go...but only if they are asking for that.

When God tell us to tell someone else something...I think we truly need to make sure it is from God and not our own judgements of someone.  God/Jesus is about uplifting us and encouraging us...so I would think that is what he will tell others to do too.   How hard is it to just pray with someone, listen to them, or just give them encouraging words.  Why point out "sins"...something tells me that if I have a sin in my life, I know about it already and hopefully am working through it.  I am not stupid...I can figure out right from wrong.  I think most other Christians are the same way.   So let's encourage, listen and love instead of being judgemental, negative and bitter. 

We have learned a lot in our marriage about God/Jesus.  We have changed our tune about what is considered a sin when it comes to being Gay.   If someone loves the same sex, what right do I have to tell them it is a sin?  What right do I have to say that they need healing if they want to go to a church.  Nobody has that right because maybe it isn't a sin.  What if people are wrong?  What if it isn't a sin...now you have poisoned them against the church.  What if we had not tried so hard to mend a friendship that was doomed to fail anyway?  Doug would not have had a stroke...our lives would have been oh so different...we wouldn't have lost our house and our business...all this because the church told us to try to fix something.   They were wrong!  We suffered because of it.  My friend Trent suffers because his church was wrong.

We can't dwell on the sins of others though...we have to practice what we preach right?  We all make mistakes and even if the people who wrong us don't say sorry, we still have to get over it.  We are all humans and we need to live in this world of humans.  I will not let my love of God/Jesus change because of what people do.  We need to make our own choices and our own decisions.  We need to evaluate what is wrong or right in our lives.  Don't let others dictate that for us.  Questions things, research things, talk to people, be open to change and love each other without judgement.
If you need to tell someone something "in love"...make sure it is encouraging and actually loving.   At least that is what I want from people.  Me and God have a fairly open relationship...if I am doing something wrong, I am fairly sure he will tell me ;)

Well...time to get to work...hopefully I have made myself clear...if not, ask a question, I will tell you if I can answer it or not.  I tend to have troubles getting the things from my head onto paper, so I may have said something in the wrong way, but didn't mean it that way...I am a numbers person, not a words person.  This is the best I can do LOL

It has been 1 1/2 years of struggles.  I think our early years of marriage hasn’t been as hard as this last bit has been.   There are days we didn’t think we could hang on anymore.  Obviously giving up isn’t an option, so we just kept on trucking (thank you mom and dad for financially helping).  I filed for bankruptcy and Doug did credit counselling, so our bills are all dealt with now.  We still were just making it pay cheque to pay cheque (which was expected).   There really isn’t much you can do when Doug is only making $12/hour and I don’t have 40 hours a week of clients. 

Last week an email came in from CDI College…the director wants to see Doug for an interview.  so on Thursday, we get ourselves into our dream car (the Mustang of course) and head to Metrotown.  I go shopping and Doug went to his interview.  I got a text from him that it was going well.  We have had so many disappointments at this point, I was just not going to get excited.  When we saw each other, he told me it went well and hopefully he would know soon.  As you all know, it wasn’t until Saturday morning (at the Costco Gas Bar) when we found out he got the job.  Now I got excited…finally…something is going our way.  He is going to be making $25/hour and working 30 hours a week.  How great is that.  Sure he has to get up at 5:30 in the morning, but that means he will be home late afternoon too.  Yes, it is about 2 hours of combined travel time on transit, but at least he doesn’t have to drive in rush hour traffic…he can let transit do that.  For now we are happy with 30 hours a week since under my bankruptcy (only 3 more months left of the 9 that I have to do budgets for)…we can only make a certain amount of money any way, so this just means I work a little less so that we don’t make too much money.

So our next little dilemma was the fact I would have to get up with Doug to drive him to the park n ride to pick up the bus to Surrey.  If he takes the bus from our place, it ads another half hour to the trip, and the park n ride is only 7 minutes away.  I didn’t mind driving him but it seems kinda silly as I would just have to go back home again.  So we thought about getting a motorcycle.  It is much easier to park there as the lot is always full, so this way he can park the bike in the motorcycle parking area.   A scooter isn’t an option…that would just be too embarrassing to ride and I doubt it would handle Doug driving it anyway.  

Obviously we don’t have the money for anything right now, but we knew that with Doug making some money soon, we could probably manage to borrow a little bit of money from my parents and buy some early 80’s fixer upper to get too and from the park n ride.  So off to Craigslist we go…we found a few, and would have even looked at them, if I hadn’t landed up talking to one of my clients who buys ICBC write offs and resells them.  He is a generous man, and when he heard that we were looking for a bike, he told me he would work something out.  So, with the money we are hoping to borrow from my parents and me working for him for the next few years, we managed to get a 2007 Yamaha V-Star 650.  If you look on Craigslist for this bike, you will see how expensive they are.  He is selling it to me for a little over cost and letting me work it off.  How amazing is that.  So now we have a reliable second vehicle.  Sure we have to deal with rain a lot, but that just means we get some good rain gear for the short trips too and from the park n ride.  For my little running around town to clients, I bet I will save money on gas if I use the bike over the Mustang.  Yes, the Mustang guzzles gas for the short trips.  It prefers the long highway trips. 

So, I am going to say it…we are finally getting blessed by the bowl full.  Sure we have been blessed with the little things for the last year and a half.  We managed to keep our head above the water, but most days we just felt like we were drowning.   I think I finally feel that I am actually out of the water.   I haven’t felt like this in a few years.  I have been so tired and so depressed about it all.  Since most of our debt is wiped off our slate (paying back some via Credit Counselling), we can start all over.  Our place is affordable, our car is affordable and now we have a bike to help us out with getting around, and food isn’t overly expensive since we can head to the US…so maybe, just maybe things will all come together.

Did I ever doubt God??? NOPE, never.  I know he was always with us, and he can’t control what others do.  This isn’t his fault.  He can’t tell people to hire Doug.  But he can bring people in our lives that want to bless us…and he has.   The new job for Doug is what he has always wanted to do again…teaching.  I might be able to slow down a bit with clients, which is nice since I have been really busy for awhile now.  We can maybe even afford vacations for next year, which is probably the most exciting thing…because as you all know, I live for my vacations.

God is great, and I don’t blame him for the last year and a half.  I also don’t believe the saying “all in his time”.  I don’t believe he wanted us to live like this for the last year and a half either…that would be cruel.  But I do know that he is with us no matter what this mean world throws at us.  We live in a world of sin, and other than dying and leaving this world, there is no way to get out of it.  So we take the lumps that get thrown at us and hopefully there are more smooth sailings than lumps.  So today, we are happy!  Doug’s last day at his old job is tomorrow and on Monday he starts his new job.  I only have 3 months left on my bankruptcy and Christmas is less than 5 months away…and outside sits the two most beautiful vehicles in the world…the Mustang and the Motorcycle.  I can’t even explain the pure joy my heart feels when I look out at my two vehicles…how can two objects like that bring a person such joy.   Thank you God!

Let’s look at the definition of what a fundamentalist is:

A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.

I am the opposite of that.  I AM a Christian!  Can I be an unfundamentalist Christian?  I sure hope so because that is what I am.  My heart aches for all those other Christians out there that don’t have a “church” home.  Right now our “church” home is at my parents’ because that is where we spend our Sundays.  Someday I hope to find something during the week that allows us to freely be who we are as Christians.  But what about those who don’t have that, or are maybe aching for a place to call home, but can’t find a “church” home that will allow them to be who they are?  It seems that most churches want you to have a rigid view of their policies, and of course that includes any gay or other unique personalities.  One sign on a church board says something about “come as you are”, and they will change you from the inside out.  So…that implies that you can be “unique”, but they will change you so that you conform to their ways.

I may not be gay, but I am sure unique.  I believe that gay is NOT a sin…you love you who you love, the sex of that person does not dictate that.  I believe that we should not judge others and that if God needs to change them, then He will do just that.  I believe that as Christians we should be way more tolerant of others.  LOVE everyone because God loves us for who we are.  I believe in marriage…no matter who you are.  I believe marriage is about love and compassion.  It doesn’t matter if it is same sex or opposite sex…I have more of an issue with marriage when people abuse each other.  I do believe it is between two people…not a village LOL  I believe that our faith is not dictated by a Church building…I am still a Christian even though currently I do not go to church.  In fact, my faith is not measured by how often I go to church.  Granted if a person likes going to church and finds that it brings them joy and peace, I have no issues with that either.  I am unique and I love who I am…I have pink hair, a Mickey Mouse tattoo and I have been married 25 years (yes that makes me unique…have you met Doug? HA HA HA)

What happens when we are different in the Christian world?  We loose friends usually because eventually you have nothing to talk about, because if you bring something up, you get pounced on, or someone wants to change you.  I want to see a place for us different people to meet at.  Some place where there is no judgement for who we are.  Sure we can make mistakes and say stupid things and forget our non-judgemental views, but we should be able to say “Sorry” and move on.  I wonder what a place like that will look like?  I haven’t lost hope yet that we will find such a place.  I would like to find a “church” that allows people in, no matter who they are.  A “church” that isn’t intent on changing people, but are just grateful for people.  A place where we can be honest about who we are without judgement.  Where I can say my beliefs and nobody wants to change me.  Sure we all don’t have to believe in the same thing, but we are still loving towards that person.  Isn’t our faith built on LOVE?  For now, I usually don’t tell people what I believe (other than in my blog) because then most people just want to change me.  Why is being unique so lonely?  I think I am more excepted in the secular world than I am in the Christian world…isn’t that sad? 

How do I show people who aren’t Christians about my faith?   I am working through that concept, because ultimately that is our goal isn’t it?   IF talking about my beliefs is hard, I guess I have to figure out how to go about it.  Maybe it is just about encouraging other unique Christians that it is okay to be unique.  Love from God is all we need, and I think that love will guide us to the decisions we have to make.   I am the person I am because God has molded me that way; I want to be who God wants me to be…so I have to have faith that He will guide me properly. 

I am an Unfundamentalist Christian and I am proud, because I do not adhere to any strict policies.  Nothing will separate me from God, and my relationship with God/Jesus is as strong today as it always has been.  Jesus is my best friend and he was the ultimate earth rebel, and I just follow his lead.

"Greatness Of Our God"

Give me eyes to see more of who You are,
May what I behold steal my anxious heart,
Take what I have known and break it all apart
For You, my God, are greater still
And no sky contains,
no doubt restrains all You are,
the greatness of our God
I've spent my life to know that I'm far from close to all You are,
the greatness of our God
Give me grace to see beyond this moment here,
to believe that there is nothing left to fear.
And You were on it, high above it all,
And You, my God, are greater still
And no sky contains,
no doubt restrains all You are,
the greatness of our God
I've spent my life to know that I'm far from close to all You are,
the greatness of our God
To all You are, the greatness of our God
And there is nothing that could ever separate us,
No, there is nothing that could ever separate us from Your love.
No life, no death, of this I am convinced
You, my God, are greater still.
And no words can say, or song convey all You are,
the greatness of our God
I'll spend my life to know
that I'm far from close to all You are,
the greatness of our God

It is a beautiful day out today and I was driving on the hwy with my music just about full blast (thank you Ford for our Shaker 500 in the Mustang) listening to Peter Furler singing “I’m Alive, I’m on Fire” and so on.   I got to thinking a bit about our situation…and what situation you ask?  Well…if you don’t know, you are not on my facebook page LOL.

In the last month we have applied, and been offered a caretaking job in Hope, applied and didn’t get a manager/caretaking job in Comox (we were runner up though), and looked, and promised a cute little cottage outside of Aldergrove.  Everything fell through, some by our own decision and some by other people’s decisions.   Also with all this, dealing with the tenants downstairs who have been driving us bonkers in the last year.  Today, we are staying where we are, Doug has a new job (but not sure if we will take it), and the tenants downstairs are moving.  All in all, it is a good day, today.  It wasn’t a good day last week though, so because of that, we are running away to Mukilteo, Washington for 2 nights and getting a change in scenery…granted not much different as we are only driving 2 hours south LOL. 

So here is my “What if” scenario…we are walking along a path…it’s a normal, not too stressful path and we come to a fork in the road.  One way is the normal, not too stressful path and the other way is a new path.  The new path isn’t really stressful either, but it’s new.  New faces and new scenery.  We stand there at the fork and pray…”God which way should I go”.  We don’t do any thinking ourselves, just wait for God to answer.  We stand there…waiting and waiting…we don’t hear anything.  So there we stand, just waiting for God to answer.  Heaven forbid should we actually make a decision on our own.

So next scenario…there is Adam and Eve standing in the Garden…minding their own business and enjoying life.  Nothing new is going on, but there stands a tree…a tree that God said “don’t eat the fruit”.  Along comes a sneaky little (or big) snake and convinces them to eat the fruit.   In this case, God spoke and said don’t, but they did anyway.  Life changed a lot from that point on, but God helped by sending Jesus later on.  But the point is, God could have not put the tree there, and then we wouldn’t have had the choice, but he did put it there and that means God has given us choices while living on this earth.  If he didn’t want us to choose for ourselves, then why put the tree there in the first place.

So back to the first scenario…there we stand at the path waiting for God to choose for us, because even though God has given us the choice, we want someone else to do the choosing for us because we are too lazy to think for ourselves.   Maybe…if we decide ourselves, along with the help of God, he will make whatever decision we make, work.   Maybe choosing one way or the other doesn’t make much difference to the end outcome because God will walk with us and help us through whatever path we choose.  Maybe, he wants us to think for ourselves just a little and stop using him has a scapegoat for decisions (right or wrong).   Maybe both paths are equally filled with fun and disappointments and he will rejoice and cry with us in  each situation.   

What if…

Sometimes thinking isn’t my strong suit because it gets me in trouble LOL.  We have had an interesting week.  We started out last week with a potential job in Hope, BC and we were fairly excited to take it, but when we finally pinned the owner down to committing to his promises, he went back on them, so we turned the job down.  What we did figure out from it all though, is I think we want to be managers/caretakers of a resort.  We have gone back and forth about it, but the job offer truly confirmed that we really would like to do that.  We will see if that pans out though.  This brings me to my thought…

I have been asking God for an answer…should we be caretakers, or shouldn’t we?  Do we keep trying, or do we stop?  Do we look for other jobs in other towns, or do we just stay here?  All these questions we ask God, and when we don’t hear a strong answer, we wonder where he is.  So here I was driving home from work (with the convertible top down of course) and I thought it again…why aren’t we hearing a clear answer?   I was feeling a little ignored…and then it hit me…let’s take God out of the picture.  Yes, do it…not saying let’s not trust God, but let’s take him out.  I am a regular person, living a regular life with no religion to cloud my judgements…what would we do?  Who would we be whining too then?   Who would we be asking for help from then?  We would have to do things based on our own judgments and experiences.  We wouldn’t have God to fall back on when things don’t work out, or if we don’t hear the answers we were hoping to hear, etc. 

Now let’s put him back into the picture…let’s use God as he was meant to be.  He gave us choices in life.   When Adam and Eve sinned, we were all doomed to fall with that sin and when God sent Jesus, we were saved from that sin, but that is only after this life on earth.  During the life on earth we have to be surrounded by this sin…our choices, other people’s choices and the evil that is the devil.  We ask for guidance, and I think we do get it in some ways, but we do have to walk this road and make our own decisions and not just always take the easy way and fall on God to make all our decisions.   I am not saying we don’t ask for guidance, but I also think we need to make our own choices too.  We do what we think is best (in God’s eyes), but when it doesn’t work out, then we blame God.  This way we can only blame ourselves LOL. 

This thinking has made me feel a little better actually.  It means I need to think about what I want, what God might want for me, and what our future might hold for us.  It is all part of the big picture.   I know God will be there no matter what, even if we make a bad choice because that is part of my faith.  I think the main thing that God wants us to know, and why we were created, is for love.  Not for having a scapegoat for when things go wrong, or when we can’t make up our own mind.  God created us to commune with him…so let’s commune…and stop asking him so many questions…I don’t want a one way friendship with God/Jesus where all I ever do is ask for help and always want something from him…I want a two way friendship where we talk about stuff together, figure things out together and just love each other no matter what.   Let’s take life out of the equation now and have it just be me and God sitting quietly (or with lots of loud music) talking about stuff.  Nothing heavy, just stuff and enjoying each other’s company.  Maybe that is what it is all about!  I think it is best done on a sunny day, with the convertible top down and some great worship music playing.  That is how God and me commune together.  I will focus on that, and not all the stuff I want God to do for me.

I love the city life…or at least living close to the city.  We live in the suburbs and that is fun too because the big city is nearby.  I have LOVED living in Surrey/White Rock for the last 15 years.  The ocean is in my blood and we have lived our dream for a few years while living at the beach.  Sometimes those dreams come crashing down though and we have to adjust…first it was our dream of moving to Mexico and being sent home (still hurts even today) and then Doug loosing his job and being unemployed and then only getting a min. wage job, which made it that we had to move from our beach front home.  That is life though and we will treasure our beach life even if it was only for a few years. 

What does our future hold though?  Living here will only get more and more expensive and when we retire, there is no way we will be able to afford to live here on our government pensions…so do we plan a little already?  On one hand i would just like to ignore the future and just go on as we have been going.  I have a few good clients and Doug will eventually get a better job and his current job isn’t awful.  But on the other hand do we look at opportunities and see if they will work within our dreams?   Our dream is to live in someplace exotic and run a boutique hotel…but is that unrealistic?  No idea, but does it hurt to try?  Actually the answer to that question is YES…we have been deeply hurt by trying, but do we try again?

Our realistic dream is for Doug to get a decent job in the Training and Development field, but that could also include running a boutique hotel as you need to train people and know how to teach people to learn skills.   So what are our goals?  Pay the bills, enjoy life and go on vacations…not really high expectations if you ask me.   So why this blog?  We are looking at running a hotel in Hope, BC.  A little dinky town that is fairly depressed and the job would be 24/7, but the people who are running it now liked the job and figure it would be a good job to get into the area we are looking at.  Does it allow us to build a base to our dream?  Can we do this job for a few years?  It would pay the bills, still allow us to go on vacations and I think we could have fun doing it.   Can a little town like Hope satisfy my city needs?  Not likely, but thankfully the city is only an hour and half away, unless you consider Chilliwack a city, and then that is only half an hour away.  We don’t have the job yet and we are still praying about it, but what if it does become ours?  Do we say YES or do we live our quiet, mundane life here in Ocean Park?  Nothing against mundane because that means nothing tragic is going on. 

The city life is in my blood along with the ocean, but just because something is in your blood, doesn’t mean you can’t try different things and go out on adventures.  We have no kids and we can just uproot if we want to.   We are trying to hear God’s voice in this…granted we know that God encouraged us to go to Mexico and we all know how that turned out…but at least we know that we will go outside of our box and take a chance.   I know Mexico wasn’t how God wanted that to end, so we need to keep having faith that his voice is true and even if things go to the crapper, we know we followed his voice no matter the risk. 

Maybe this job will allow us to move to California someday?  Not likely but heck, why not dream.  Maybe someone will want an experienced couple to take over their ranch and run a bed and breakfast or something like that…ok, I am getting off point…not surprising since I tend to wander in the head a little LOL.  Life is a great adventure if we choose to look at the positive in it and not the negative.  God never promised us that this life will be perfect and smelling like a rose garden…but he promised us peace, protection and LOVE…so maybe this will be an adventure…or maybe this is just a kick in the butt that says “not this time”, but you are ready to get out there and see what adventure is waiting for you.  So here is to praying that God will have his hand in our lives no matter what happens…if it’s staying here in Ocean Park, or moving to some little hick town surrounded by mountains instead of an ocean…we are game for whatever because we are loved by God

As Steven Curtis Chapman says so nicely in his song…

 

Started out this morning
In the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head
Of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle
Try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible
And I read about me
Said, I'd been a prisoner
And God's grace had set me free

And somewhere between the pages
It hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me
And I heard somebody say, "Let's go"

Saddle up your horses
We've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder
Of God's amazing grace

Let's follow our Leader
Into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other
This is the great adventure, yeah

Come on get ready
For the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion
In a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons
Just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for, yeah

Saddle up your horses
We've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder
Of God's amazing grace

Let's follow our Leader
Into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other
This is the great adventure

We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all, we'll find that
This is the greatest journey
That the human heart will ever see

The love of God will take us far
Beyond my wildest dreams, yeah
Oh, saddle up your horses
Come on, get ready to ride