Looking back on 2014, it was the year of
Ebola and missing planes and Taylor Swift and the selfie stick.
It was also the year where I started
really following the Angels, began struggling with fear and worry, my rib
started popping out of place routinely, had my wisdom teeth removed, gained two
new roommates, lost 35 pounds, celebrated weddings and babies, mourned losses,
took risks, went hydro-biking, read great books, learned leadership under a new
boss, began substitute teaching, visited home for the first time in 3 years, got
my first credit card, met weekly with a solid mentor, participated in Dressember and bought a couch.
I look back in 2014 and see the fullness
of life; the things gained and lost, the joys and the hardships, the
encouragement from friends and the hard conversations had, the excitement and
the anxiety. FULL, a year that is bursting at the seams, a year that will most
definitely bleed into the next.
This year my theme from the Lord was
discipline, and holy Moses, was I challenged in that! In every area, mentally,
physically, spiritually, emotionally… my life was rocked by Christ; the theme
came from a verse in Hebrews…
“No
discipline is enjoyable while it is happening… its painful! But afterward,
there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in
this way.”
(12:11)
Little did I know, learning discipline
would teach me the difference between faith and fear, the sovereignty of God,
and how to trust and to become less of a control freak with my life and let Jesus
take the wheel (thank you for the ever popular reference, Carrie Underwood).
This past year was filled to the brim
with hardship and joy, and even though it was at sometimes painful, the Word of
the Lord proves right; there is a peaceful harvest to be gleaned as I walk into
2015. I take the harvest of this past year into this next year, remembering all
that I have been taught, all that I have been trained in. Am I saying that I
have achieved righteous living? Not at all, this sinner has a LONG way to go my
friends (and a lot of guilty pleasures to part with a.k.a. The Mindy Project).
BUT, I am saying that this year has taught me more of what righteous living
looks like, to discipline yourself in the Word, in wise counsel, in time management,
in clean living and eating, in budgeting, in my resources.
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…
the Word of the Lord proves right; there is a peaceful harvest to be gleaned as
I walk into 2015…
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This year, I wrestled with God and
walked away limping. My theology drastically changed because of that, in the
best ways possible.
Don’t cast 2014 to the wayside, leaving
it behind in the dust in light of a new year. Remember all the things He has
done for you and through you this past year, because the person He molded
during 2014 will be the same person He pulls into 2015.
(But
lets leave Ebola in 2015, that thing needs to be left
behind, for the love of
all good things.)
