Welcome to the end of the year

Welcome to today.

Isn't this a grand place?  You have worked hard to get here haven't you?

As you can see by the title of this post, I am *ahem* a little behind in writing this...

There have been so many....

Flowers, hours and showers
Many tears, lots of fears

Many, too many things to mention here.

That have come across my calendar.

For me this past year has been epic in many ways.
It's been full of changes some hellos and a lot of good-byes.

Full of friends, new and old.
Too many memories that have grown cold.
Many changes served on my plate but have been... oh so good, just like a visit to Chick-fil-a.

How do you total some 365 days in something simple and concise?

I have so much to tell you, I could tell you all twice.

As you can see this post was caught in the blur of busyness.

But that doesn't mean my past hasn't been speaking.  When I look back I can see great changes and that gives me hope.  Hope because I know that God loves me too much to leave His workmanship unfinished.

This morning when I checked in with God, He reassured me that He wasn't quite complete with what He has started.

I have stories from my travels to India and Africa, from last year.  Stories from the one word that I prayed over during the year.  Unwritten posts that have gotten to close to my heart and I can't let go.  Stories that are still speaking life, love and hope.

Stories of the me and the TSA.

Stories of how God unpacked a dream and placed in neatly in my lap.  Oh wait, He's still writing that one.

Stories confessed on the back of a bus in Africa.  Stories...so many.  Jeromy & Jessica know a few of those.

And yet when I look at what just one that was the most important one to share with you, I can't single one story out more valuable than the other.  They are all working together for God's good.

Meshing and melding, shaping and molding, weaving my heart into the heart of God, that matters to Him.

The fact that it matters to God is enough today.  I pray it is everyday.

So where does that leave me for today?  What about all the failures, the undone things, things that still need resolved, the continuing story?

There are plenty of those too...and that makes my perspective much more anticipatory of the greater things that God has planned.

God's greater plan is just beginning.

What a grand place to be...at the beginning.   You have officially gained enough wisdom to see God at work in your life.  

It is also a place where you know a lot of things that will work and will not work, it's a hard, lonely place.

Learning how to just be, is a hard and lonely place.

But God is with me in this new year, this new season, this newness, in the new things He is doing that matter in my life.

I don't have it all together.  Certainly not, I don't have the answers but my past definitely is part of my redeeming story that God is still putting the finishing touches on.  And since it matters to God, the work that He has created this child to be, matters to me.

I am learning to feel more at home “in my own skin” than ever before.  Even in the broken and cracked places, there I see God's redemption.

Though the physical struggles may be more, the joy is more overflowing. Gratitude seems more magnificent, as I’m so grateful not only for each day, but each moment and each person that passes my way!

I'm in this year to win the most freedom God can teach me.  Freedom is shining some light....even on my past.  That feels good and like a good start.

What's God been teaching you lately?