Oh the blessed 2016. I want to kick this year in the shins. If 2016 were a person, it would nod in agreement, take the shin kicking and leave the party.
I thought that those words are what I wanted to start and end with. Don’t get me wrong, I want to kick it in the shins really hard but there is so much more to the story…to all of our stories.
This past year has been maddening. There have been moments where all I could do was throw my head back and laugh and I did…and not because it was funny.
I have had answered prayers, a job promotion I didn’t go out looking for, an incredible church family that dreams with us, walks with us and does the hard things of life together. What would this year have been without those I could boldly look in the eye and admit when I am not ok…and to be greeting with grace, love and “of course you’re not”… and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
It has been a year where the dreams won’t die and God just reminds you that He will do it so just…keep…swimming.
I have written more about loss this year because I have never walked out the shock of it like this year. It has been healing and hard.
This year has remind me that when everything is shaken, my God is not and He is with us. When the holidays will never be the same and life-long traditions change a bit, Jesus does not. Jesus changed everything and he does not change.
I’m ready for 2017. I know it is just a new calendar year but we all need the mark of new.
He is the God of the new thing…
He is the God who makes us new…
He is the God who restores…
He is the God who is still God when our year is the hardest and the best… His love and kindness does not change and cannot be shaken even when we are. 2016 has been hard but it has been a year of God showing how he sustains us.
2017…I got my eye on you. Let’s do this!