I invite you to experience God with me. What will that look like? Different for each person. For some people, encounters with God are dramatic events. But, for most of us, it's more like a whispered conversation, a sudden smile, hurts dissolving, light coming in. It's like this: I have four kids. My conversation with one child looks very different than my conversation with the next, because each of them is unique, and our relationships reflect those differences. Before I started meeting with God, I always figured He was mostly disgusted with me. After all, I sin; He doesn't. I also figured He wasn't very interested in me. Why should He be? I'm just one little guy trying to make it in a great big universe. doesn't go the way we want it to. Life sometimes dishes out crap. How do you emerge-not just intact-but triumphant? Where do you find that settled inner peace that can stare down trouble and trauma without blinking, without flinching, without backing down? How do you live life in a fallen world with a smile, not just on your face, but deep down in your heart? Many of us turn to God, of course, but how do you find a faith that works in real life? How do you find a religion that's more than a Sunday morning dress up game? In the pages that follow, I'll be sharing with you some of my journey, my discoveries, my process. I first started sharing these discoveries on October 31, 2002. It wasn't long before people in over 50 nations were connecting with me looking for a faith that really worked in the world in which they lived. Sometimes I find myself talking to someone who has been a follower of Jesus for fifty years, yet is just now discovering a beautiful new way to receive what's needed from Him. At other times, I'm talking with someone who is starting to explore the Christian faith. I've found over the years that these principles for connecting with God seem to work equally well for men and women, young and old, regardless of class, race or culture. I've especially enjoyed sharing this journey with men and women in recovery-possibly because they no longer feel the need to pretend, and pretension is a big enemy of truth. Truth, Jesus said, is what you need to set you free. But many people have truth, yet aren't getting free. Why not? I think in these daily readings you'll begin to understand the reasons. Will this work for you? I'm not going to give you a song and dance about how disciplined you need to be, about how you need to set goals and achieve them. Someone else can do that. Instead, I'm going to tell you a little secret. It really only takes one thing. Courage. It takes courage to look inside, to face the pain within that we want to hide. But, until we do, we never discover the God who's greater than the pain, the Jesus who wants to set us free. Read, ponder, pray. Don't be too concerned if you miss a day or if you pray and nothing seems to happen. You're on an adventure with God, and He wants to hang out with you even more than you want to hang out with Him. Expect the unexpected. God loves showing up in your life in all kinds of surprising ways. I can't wait to hear from you. Look me up and tell me your story. Dwight Clough