Josiah Tate Nelson

When I set out to write something I do strange things. First I lower my chair so that I can be closer to the keyboard…than I scroll through the list of fonts to choose just the right one for my mood today, I chose Poor Richard today. Than I make the font a nice big readable size 14 and I set to writing.

So now that all the pieces are in place…

My friend left today. He’s gone to the west coast to pursue his life calling of helping Jesus heal people. I have much emotion about the turning of proverbial pages if you will, the passing of seasons, the ending of chapters… We have been through a lot in the last 3 months shy of 3 years.

He sauntered into my life a really confused boy who thought that if he could just look good and look like he was always having fun that no one would see the “cavernous depravity” that wracked his soul, mind, heart, spirit. I am astounded at what God can do to a human in such a short amount of time. He opened up his heart in ways he never knew he could and found life there. He opened his life to people on levels he didn’t even know existed and he turned and turned and turned until he discovered that he had been twisted into a horrible disfiguring knot of humanity and then he broke. He broke at the sight of his own bloody mess and found love waiting for him there. Love that began to untie and untwist and undo the years of injustice wrought on him by life and poor broken people who never knew any better. He all of the sudden began seeing with new eyes, it was like he woke up to these amazing depths that had always been there, but just could never have been recognized before. One day my friend got a real glimpse into eternity and he has never been the same again. I don’t know if it was the drizzly night we stood outside of a kinko’s on the Plaza and I talked to him about the God of Revelations, the one enthroned in light, and with fire in his eyes…etc. but at some point he got it. At some point he began seeing that he had an eternal purpose on the earth and that he had a voice that Jesus gave only to him, and that he had a role to fill so that people who were broken like himself could find healing too. He found confidence, and OHHH what a difference that made in him. He began giving out of himself and speaking life into the hearts of people all around him. He brought life and hope to strangers to whom he served coffee. And best of all, he didn’t know it. He had no idea how his life was affecting the people around him. He was never aware of how his negative actions affected people as well. But Jesus is sharing that with him now. He is showing him how to walk a life worthy of his calling, fully pleasing his Father in the process.

Now Josiah Nelson is walking tall and straight, a man, full of life, purpose, and the tenacity to see it happen in his life for the glory of his Father, out of my life. Congratulations Josiah, you have done well. You have honored your Father in heaven. My prayer is that you never forget your chains, that you never forget the sound of His hearts pleasure over you, that you never forget who your friends are, and that you always walk upright before God and Man.

You are amazing, I love you. I am so honored to know you, to have been a part of the transformation. I am so excited to see what comes out of you in the years to come. The mountain isn’t conquered yet! Keep going. I am SO for you! And I am sorry that I could not articulate this to your face. Forgive my weakness in expressing with spoken words.