Yes, Dear Lord, I DEFINITELY Perceive Your New Thing

I’ve been chuckling a lot these last two days as I’ve been on phone/chat sessions (for hours!) with the various blessed companies who help keep this website operational.

Ironically, in light of my “fear post” back on Monday, I’ve become so carried away in catching up on the housekeeping matters I’ve been neglecting for months, that I haven’t posted since Tuesday. I really do plan/hope to get to the point where I’m posting daily (at least) so long as we’re all shut in.

Alas, it’s still not quite happening. Ha. The potential post topics are roaring in much faster than I can keep up.

I’ve been intending for more than a week to post some potentially inspiring stories and pictures about the amazing garden currently exploding with Glorious Growth in our backyard.

But so far, nothing.

Nor have I posted about the inspiring book I’ve read in the last week regarding the 24-7 prayer movement that’s been running for 10 YEARS in Austin.

Nor have I posted about the inspiring, Godly messages Cheryl and I saw last week in Miracle in Cell 7.

Nor have I yet arranged any of the Zoom interviews that I hope to conduct with my various missionary friends and local pastors in the coming days. (Heck, I’ve not yet even set up the YouTube Channel in which I plan to post those interviews and other videos of potentially inspirational things my wife and I have been doing around our blessed home in the last few weeks. )

Nor have I made progress in setting up the on-line chess tournament I’ve been envisioning for at least three weeks.

Nor have I posted about the awesome little donation that came in for the West Brazos Herald yesterday (despite the donor’s publicly mentioned nervousness over his stock-market nest egg).

Nor have I posted about the little Kona Ice blessing my neighbors gave me yesterday in honor of my birthday. (Ya’ll in Southern Brazoria County, please click the link and schedule that truck to stop safely by your own house social distance style! What an awesome treat!)

Nor have I posted about Steven Furtik’s highly inspirational message that had me shouting in our living room for a few minutes yesterday.

Nor have I posted the technology tips I’d like to pass along for small churches that are having a tough time keeping their congregations connected to one another in this time of social distancing. (My own awesome church is PROSPERING in this season, by the way. In normal times, we usually have less than 50 people at our Sunday services. For the past three weeks or so, Pastor Edward and Julie’s online messages and worship services, meanwhile, have reached 1000 people (or more) every time!)

And I’ve certainly not posted any updates about my front yard Easter Eggs I’m still praying will hatch on Sunday! (Okay, brief update: my wife yesterday afternoon reported she saw a mockingbird nervously bouncing around in our driveway, about 20 feet from the tree in question. It was warily looking toward the tree. “I think that may be the mama, trying to decide if she should get back in the nest!” Cheryl said. Dear Lord, let it be so!)

So, as I say, I’ve been chuckling while I’ve been putting all those posts on hold to work on all the important-but-tedious “behind the scenes” issues with this site (and the West Brazos Herald’s site, too). I envision a dear reader or two worrying about me in my absence from the semi-promised daily posts these last couple of days: Uh oh. Is Don struggling with that fear again? Are his allergy symptoms still scaring him? Ha!

Please know, friends, my symptoms have not yet entirely cleared up, and given the state of our local weather, I am not expecting that to change. But, our Lord is Awesome, and I am well — both spiritually and physically.

Granted, there have been few times since my “fear post” that I have talked myself into momentarily believing my symptoms have moved to my chest started developing into the dreaded “shortness of breath” that they say is the tell-tale sign of COVID 19.

But that’s just fear talking. And fear, of course, is all nonsense.

Thanks be to God, I’ve learned to just quickly tell fear to shut up when he starts his worthless yackin’. (That’s the main lesson of Steven Furtek’s message mentioned above. Ya’ll check it out!) I continue to breathe just fine. I just sometimes have to do it mostly through my mouth instead of with my nose. Ha!.

This is not to say that Cheryl and I are taking a cavalier approach to all the recommend precautions. We continue to keep our distance from everyone, and we wash our hands more than ever these days. We are also very careful to not touch our faces while out running — only absolutely necessary — errands, and we go ahead and change clothes, shower, quickly run most grocery containers through a bowl of soapy water, and throw away all plastic store bags upon our return.

We remain united in faith and trust in God that, as this awesome message from a New York City Doctor explains, we know how to avoid this virus. And we remain committed to putting this blessed knowledge to our best practice. (I am not, at all, suggesting that I “know” we won’t get the virus. Only God knows how that will turn out. But He — through the messages of many blessed experts — has certainly seen to it that we know what to do to prevent it. It is up to us, now, to faithfully do what He has shown us. Alas, the subtleties here are enough for another blog post. I’m adding it to my list. Ha!)

And all of this leads me back title of this post:

The Cudd’s here in good ole’ Sweeny, Texas are committed to Our Lord during this time. We continue to rejoice over His Glorious Promises in scripture, and we remain endlessly grateful for the countless ways we have already seen Him carry them out, for our good, many times before in our earthly experiences. (For just some examples, dear reader, please consider exploring the spiritual encouragement section of this site. ) This circumstance is no different from any other from which He has delivered us — except that He now has the entire world’s attention. Glory be to God for His Great Ways — forever finding ways to turn the devil’s wily plans against themselves! We remain BOLDLY confident in His leadership on this — and everything!

Yes, Lord, I DO perceive the new thing You are doing. (Reference Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” ) No, I do know any specifics yet, but I remain confident that You are leading us ALL to Glorious Victory. And Thanks be to You for that! Lord, may we follow You to Victory!

As ya’ll see, I’ve still got a lot of posting to do. Lord willing I’ll be back here very soon. (Just as soon as I’ve got all this website housekeeping business taken care of. Dear Lord, let all that take no more than another day or two!)

• Hopefully-not-too-annoying Note #1: I feel (and am) obligated to let you know, blessed reader, that the book and movie links above take you to Amazon.com where you may purchase them if you’d like. Please know that Amazon will pay me a small commission — I am not entirely sure how much, to be honest — on any sales made through that link.

• Hopefully-not-too-annoying Note #2: I am back to updating this blog several times a week with the hope of sharing some encouragement with The World in this time in which discouragement can be found aplenty elsewhere. If you are in agreement with that hope, please consider clicking the social media links below and sharing this post with your friends. Also, please consider sharing your own encouraging stories in the comment section below. Seeing a great a deal of blessed activity on this website will certainly be a blessing to me (and others)!

• Hopefully-not-too-annoying Note #3: If you are in the West Brazos Region of Southern Brazoria County, please consider joining the facebook group my wife and have I have started as a means by which local residents can quickly and easily share their own COVID 19 Shut-In stories, prayers and news with each other.