Howdy! My name is Josiah! If you’re here, chances are you might’ve picked up on that already. It just so happens that you’ve stumbled across my one hundredth post! That may not sound like a lot to you, or maybe it does, but I’m grateful to be here, and so blessed to have made it to one hundred!
I thought this might be a good place to take a step back, tell you a little bit about me, share how this whole thing started, and where it’s going! So if you’re ready, strap in, and hold on to something, because this ride’s a little bumpy!
Chapter 1: The Paddock
I started writing on my blog back in October 2013, when I was just ten years old. From a young age, it was always a dream of mine to get to create things and be able to share them with the world.
I was born in June 2003 in Minnesota, and was raised in a great family. I was always creating things. Stories, games, magazines, pictures–you name it, I probably tried it at one point or another. I always enjoyed going on adventures of all sorts. I grew up with a deep love for Jesus, as well as a love for New Zealand, planted there by my mum, a Kiwi herself. I always wanted to do something grand, but never knew quite what that might be (though I certainly had my ideas lol).
Yet for every adventure I went on, I always wanted siblings to do them with. And when I was about eight, my family started the process of adopting three siblings from Colombia. Two years later, my parents and I were prepping to leave for Colombia to meet them and bring them home! My parents suggested that I write a blog to keep a record of everything that happened. So I downloaded the Blogger app on my mum’s phone and set to work. I pressed publish for the very first time on October 6, 2013. You can read that very first post right here!
My first iteration of the blog was called the Paddock, inspired directly by the hills of New Zealand. From day one, I desired to build a place specifically to encourage other young people, to bless and challenge them in their walk with Jesus and to live every day on the adventure that is life with Him.
I recorded the events of our trip to Colombia and bonding with my new siblings, and I began to love the art of writing. But I had no idea just how hard the journey over the next couple years would be. It’s a really long story, and maybe someday I’ll have the time to tell it, but to keep it brief, the process to get home from Colombia with my new siblings was nothing short of a miracle. We encountered closed door after closed door, and it began to seem like it was impossible.
But God had different plans, and I’m so glad He did.
Chapter 2: The Aftermath
The season to follow took a toll on me. Right as I was about to enter middle school, I entered the most tumultuous of my young life. Long periods of change stretched across multiple countries, bonding with my new siblings and losing my grandma marked a difficult season, one of the hardest I’ve ever walked through.
My creative side took a pretty big hit in the aftermath. I spent lots of time in my own little world, absorbed in games, movies, books, pretty much any other world than the one I actually lived in.
My grandma passed away in 2015. But before she died, there was one memory we shared that I will always remember. We were all gathered around her bed in the living room at their place in New Zealand, and we knew she was coming down to her last few days. We were listening to some old CDs, and one song came on, and she used her strength to sing along quietly to each word of “What A Friend We Have In Jesus.” Here are the simple lyrics:
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
O what peace we often forfeit
O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer
I can’t tell you the difference that the truth of these lyrics made in my life. In a time where I came home to a world I didn’t recognise, this one thing I knew: I had a faithful friend who would never leave me or forsake me. His name is Jesus.
I clung to that truth as I walked into the struggle of middle school and the early teen years. There was a lot of growth yet to happen, but the sweetness of the truth of God and the reminder of His presence in my life was a lifeline, and as I walked through the trials of life, He was doing so much in me, just beneath the surface.
Chapter 3: The Lighthouse
Towards the end of middle school, I began to build some new friendships, joined a soccer team, and I started to get my creativity back. Early high school I started to grow as a writer and as a young person, I started growing deep friendships, strengthening my faith in the Lord, and I fell in love with the art of storytelling.
In 2018, I began to write seriously, and started working on my first full draft of a novel. Maybe sometime that will see the light of day… who knows! It was during this time that I realised this recurring theme in wanting to build a platform for other young people to be encouraged and challenged in their walk with the Lord. God began to place a burden on my heart for this, and the idea to use blogging to do so came to mind. So I started the process of building The Lighthouse, a site for teenagers to come and be strengthened in their walk with Jesus. God was beginning a new chapter in my life, and that was reflected in my writing. You can read all about that season on my post the story of a lighthouse! It retells the story of that blog and the full timeline of it and my heart behind it!
Those stories and articles are all available right here on the blog you’re currently on! There is a lot of different things to choose from, but if you’re interested, I’d encourage you to take a look back!
In 2020… well, we all know what happened in 2020. The pandemic changed a lot of things for me. Which is probably underselling the magnitude of it since that was just about everyone’s story. Friday, March 13th, everything just got cancelled, and didn’t start again until months later, and even then, everything was different.
That wasn’t the easiest season–but interestingly enough, God did still bring so much joy out of that time, and He did so much good in a time when it was all too easy to see the bad.
I trailed off from posting on the Lighthouse towards the end of Summer 2020. My love for writing wasn’t done, but my focus was split in a lot of different directions, and my commitment floundered. As I went into junior and senior year of high school, I began to be pulled in a lot of different places. Yet in the height of distraction, as regrets, relationships, pride, self-centred dreams, and worry about the future lingered all around me, God was again doing something beneath the surface.
Chapter 4: The Pruning
I graduated in Spring 2022. So glad to be done, I decided to just focus on having a great senior summer. As the summer began, I pulled in closer to Jesus, and I began to lean on Him more and more. God had begun something new in me through a group that met that spring for worship, small groups, and connection. It was called Cultivate. At a really low point, where I had felt completely lost and alone, God pulled me free and set me in community with people that truly loved the Lord, and more than that, desired Him more than anything else.
And as I walked into summer with my eyes on Him, God continued the work. He was refining my old dreams and hopes into something new. Towards the end of the summer I volunteered last minute for a week out at a local camp. Counselling that week out at camp, we got halfway through the week and had a staff worship night. That night was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I felt surrounded by a community of young people that desired God, heart and soul. That energised me like never before, and set me off on a new journey of just saying, “Yes, Lord,” to whatever He had in store for me. I knew that those friends of mine had something special, and I wanted what they had. And what they had was a deep dependence and reliance upon the Lord.
As I would come to learn over the next season of life, a dependence and reliance upon God is one of the sweetest treasures we can know.
Chapter 5: The Treehouse (& the Leap)
Going into the fall of 2022, God grabbed ahold of my heart fully and began to pull me into a deeper relationship and love for Him each day. Walking into 2023, I had the chance to step into a leadership role for Cultivate, as well as other opportunities at church, camp, and around town. I started writing weekly devotions for Cultivate, and God developed a passion in me to see the younger generation come to know the Lord, and a desire to use the gifts and skills He’s placed in me for His name and His renown.
He’s given me so many good things, and surrounded me with amazing people that shine His light. I’m so blessed, and in highs and lows, God has always been faithful. It’s His promise not that we won’t see trials, but that He’s with us when we do.
As He’s walked with me through the past couple of years, He’s refined my dreams and goals, and most of all, my heart. When we go through hardships, there is a gift to be found there; and that is the beauty of dependence. Total reliance. Not despair. Desperation. Singular hope. Where we can truly say that “nothing else will do, we just want You” to our Jesus.
Praise be to God. He is good and oh so holy. Always faithful. Always true. Always better than anything and anyone else. There is no greater love than the love of Jesus. And whatever His plans, they are always for our best and for His glory!
The Lord has the reins on the future, and I am truly excited for what He has next.
With all that said, where are we now?
Well, I’m currently on a bit of a road trip, going straight down a new road after some twists and turns. The Lord is at the wheel, and I’m in the passenger seat. We’re going all in, giving each day to the Lord as it gets here!
One hundred posts is a cool milestone for me, and I’m excited to finally be at this point. I don’t know what’s next, but I do want to use what God has given me for His glory, as best I can. So I’ll be working hard to develop fresh and encouraging content here on my blog, on my YouTube channel, and on Instagram! I want it to continually be centred on Christ, and encourage other young people to run towards the adventure that is life with Him.
The Treehouse is just a title for where we’re at right now, intended to be a throwback to where we’ve come from, and the childlike faith and creative wonder in the Lord that I started out with.
And what’s up next?
The Leap.
Diving in, going deep, all the way into what God has next. What that will turn out to be, I’m not quite sure, but the sky’s the limit! I hope you’ll join me and follow along, not just here, but that you’ll dive in fully towards whatever the Lord has been pressing in on your heart lately. It’ll be the best decision you could ever make. Take everything that He’s given you, and leverage it fully for the Kingdom.
Hold nothing back. Go all in for Jesus.
100%.
Nothing less than one hundred for Him, and no one more worthy.
The Treehouse 