I’m not always a consistent blogger, but one thing I have been regular on has been my New Years post. As many bloggers do, I like to take this post to reflect briefly on the year behind us and then look ahead to the new year.
2015
Last year, always feels weird to say that at first, was an interesting year to say the least as there were many highs and some lows, but I do feel I learned a lot about myself, my relationship with God and how that effects my daily life.
Looking back on my New Years post from 2015 is always interesting as I like to see what I was expecting and hoping I would do and then see how well I accomplished that. Last year I wanted to focus on figuring out where God is leading me, I wanted to pursue God, not sit there waiting to see what happens. The focus from last year was to see how to change myself. There were three aspects I talked about, being more humble, reading more and to be still. I really want to reflect more on the first one…being humble:
Being more humble. I think I’ve always been somewhat humble, but I wanted to focus on thinking of OTHERS instead of myself. I may not have truly discovered that until the end of last year, but in some ways I’ve succeeded. But before I could do that, I had to learn one other thing…something I’ve always struggled with. I had to learn to LOVE myself. That was something I really hadn’t thought of, but if I thought less of me, that I wasn’t worthy of God’s love it actually made me dwell on myself…I couldn’t think of others, when all I thought of was how much I really didn’t like myself. Well I learned, that God loves me no matter what. And it’s not that he is just sitting on the sidelines thinking how much he loves me as I continue heading over the cliff…no he actively pursues us. In a post that I’ve been writing, but have yet to post, I highlight a few verses that have taught me much.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever – Psalm 23:6
God’s love follows us wherever we go, he loves us unconditionally even when we continually reject his overtures of love towards us. He continues to let us know, ‘I’ll be here when you are ready‘ and in fact, he goes one step more and reminds us constantly, sometimes forcefully, ‘Hey, I’m here and I still love you.‘
God has a plan for our lives and He will go to great lengths to complete his plan in us…in fact, nothing will stop him.
And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again. -Philippians 1:6
Life’s Journey
So in 2015, I went on a journey to find out what my purpose in life was, what I was meant to do and how God was going to use me. I wrote a whole series of posts focused on this (and read them in reverse order to get the gist of my journey) and it was really quite illuminating, but it didn’t take me long until I actually believe I found what my purpose is, and it applies to all of us I believe. I wrote about it in my post entitled, Come and See.
This was truly enlightening and I can say that it changed my life. I learned that God has me where he wants me…and when he’s ready to move me, he will. I was struggling to find out where I was going so I could prepare or perhaps try and talk God out of it…but I found that I’m serving God each and every day right where I am. There is no need for me to do something “great” at least how humans define greatness. God has me doing “great” things right where I am. Someday he may call me to the human definition of “greatness”, but right now I’m exactly where he needs me.
Look at these lyrics from a song by the Newsboys song, How to Change the World. This really epitomizes my journey in 2015. It was the culmination of a year of learning, about myself, about God. I learned that I’m serving him in every moment of my life. When I’m at work, I’m serving him. When I’m coaching my son’s baseball team, I’m serving him. When I am grocery shopping, I’m serving him. As I’m typing this post, I’m serving him.
It’s the prayer in an empty room
Little things we do when nobody’s around
A hand reaching out to a heart in doubt
It’s the smallest spark that can light the darkThat’s how you change the world!
2016
So what do I think 2016 will bring? I’m not entirely sure. I’m sure it will have it’s high points and low points. I’m sure I’ll reflect back in a year from now and see things that I had hoped to accomplish, still sitting undone…but as usual, I suspect that I’ll learn something completely unexpected, but it will be exactly what God had in mind for me all along.
God bless and Happy New Year!
Exceptional Christian 