2018 - An Unforgettable Year!
In just a few short days the iconic crystal "ball" drops in Times Square as we usher in 2019!! Lots of confetti will be circulated into the atmosphere, balloons will be released in the air, champagne will be equally divided as people "CHEER" to welcome in the new year. Some will be close enough to their significant other (or someone else's significant other) and embrace to enjoy a "first kiss" for the new year. Some (like myself) plan to be on my knees in prayer at church - thanking God for taking me through a rather rough 2018 and express how grateful I am that millions did not make it through the year - but I was one of those who did. High Praises unto God for sure!! Conversely, there are some who earned the right of choice to be at hone and look at it all on TV - or sleep through the festivities and wake up knowing that the calendar has changed and it is now a new year - 2019.
Every year many are poised to make RESOLUTIONS. I am a big advocate for making realistic resolutions. For myself, I make resolutions that are conceivable to be attained so I don't disappoint myself too early and quit the process :-). Of course, I have aspirations to see significant change in my life as well - but I must also bear in mind that God has the final say. The ultimate trajectory of my life belongs to God - I just need to be available to do what he has purposed for me to do. I have a vision for myself, I have written it down - I move in silence and let God be glorified as HE makes perfect those things that concern me.
Being single as we usher in the new year has seemingly been a bit painful for me. I also KNOW some married people who wish they were single and they tell me to value being single! (Ha!). I guess we always want what we don't have (what do you think?). This time of the year, I usher n the "what if" factor. What if I had the person in my life that God has been preparing me for - how would we celebrate? "What if" God wants me single (on purpose) to honor and give HIM the glory - (after all, being single affords me MORE quiet time with the FATHER than if I were joined together with someone). "What if" I stopped wondering - and just be patient and SEE what God unfolds for me. I do admit, for Christmas I posted "THIS IS THE LAST CHRISTMAS I WILL SPEND AS A SINGLE WOMAN ...." (just putting it out there) :-)
I digress.
I have often wondered if "SOME" people see the person they "REALLY" are when they look in the mirror. I mean, in an age of magnificent technological advances, a HE can cam become a SHE (and visa-versa!!). Of course, it is a matter choice but the dating scene makes one ask new questions like "were you born with your plumbing" - or did you buy it? :-) We have become a society of great imitators. If you don't like the nose God gave you - you can "buy" a new one. You can look like essentially ANYONE but at the same time - you lose the authenticity of who YOU really are. Someone somewhere has been praying for someone just like you but now you are playing someone else's role. Come back- Come back wherever you are!
As we resolve to usher in the new year - also resolve to look within yourself for the answers you seek. (that goes for me too!) The answers we are looking for are inside us - we just don't look hard enough for them sometimes. For ME - God has brought untimely difficulties to get me back on track. I was riding along in life believing "IT IS WHAT IT IS" and God interrupted my stride to remind me that I was on HIS timing and not my own. I am concretely here to tell you that God will interrupt your plans - especially if your plans will wreck what HE has planned for you.
In 2018 my daughter lost her father by way of the grave (on MY birthday). Every year on March 27th, I will celebrate another year of life - but have the unmistakable memory of seeing someone I once loved lying in a coffin. Bittersweet loss for sure - I do NOT miss his physical and emotional abuse towards me - nor do I exist in the woulda - coulda - shoulda element or state of being - although he was an absent father - my daughter still his his DNA - so we grieved differently but appropriately. On another note, losing my brother (June 15) and my mother on June 17th (just two days apart in 2017 - is / was and will be part of my life reflection.
Memories.... OUCH!
I was trying to reflect upon what NEWS story seemed to grip my senses the most in 2018. There were so many un-natural disasters BUT the fires in California still "take my breath away". Not to minimize ANY OTHER disaster - but seeing a glimpse of what I imagined the gates of hell looked like was beyond words (for me). The hurricane in Florida that wiped away an entire city, the volcanoes in Hawaii - and the list goes on - Jesus, have mercy! I wish I were in a position to hug everyone affected. The ability to do something tangible, to just "hold the hand" of someone that lost EVERYTHING. From afar, all I felt capable of doing was to pray.
Sexual misconduct in the news caused one of the elite stars in Hollywood to be placed in jail - Bill Cosby. An opulent and lifestyle peppered with grandiosity replaced with handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit. According to the news feeds - shame has been placed on the laps of others in high places - guess similar woes will surface in 2019.
Then there are the teachers who fell from grace for having sex with their students. What about the mass shootings? The statistics will soon be revealed how many women and men wee killed by way of domestic abuse soon. ..... and the unsightly list goes on and on and on.... (surely, I only grazed the surface on painful news in 2018).
There are a multiplicity of complexities in the world but there were many noteworthy events too. Some of the courageous acts of heroic proportions are to be celebrated. Our first responders to our military serving in foreign countries to help America be the land of the free - and the home of the brave. From the sing-mom (or dad) who "made" Christmas happen for little ones who don't know anything about your struggle. BRAVO! To the married wife (or husband) who gets NO credit for making sure the bills are paid each month - STANDING OVATION! To the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, assisted-living employees and the medical professionals who give up their time because they have embraced their call - GOD BLESS YOU!
It was a busy year and the news outlets were never without new material to report. It is the silent "screams" I wish I could help. People who get up and just keep going - facing the world with a smile - no one knowing they are one moment away from "losing their mind" - I "feel" ya!
No one knows what tomorrow holds - we just know God is already there. I just don't believe God is on the Throne looking down at the earth HE created and saying "Hmmmm - I did not see that coming". Let us hold fast to our confession of faith. Pull up our boot straps and hang on for the ride. God is gonna get us through 2010 - look, he got us through 2018.
As i blow out the candle for 2018 and light the new one for 2019 I am praying for my SUDDENLY SEASON! Forgetting those things which are behind - and I am looking forward to 2019 with great expectation. It will require losing people connected to me (if they weigh me down). My eyes are fixed on God. Whatever drama that happened, whatever foolishness that held me hostage has to go. (generational curses are broken). This is not a cliche as much as I am believing God for the manifestation of the things that the enemy would desire to hold hostage from me to be evident in the natural realm. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in HIS sight. Oh, Lord - my Strength and My Redeemer.
Call me crazy but I am looking forward to 2019 to **BLOW MY MIND** with BLESSINGS!! Who is going to join me on this journey of POSITIVE EXPECTATION?
A sore will never heal if you keep pulling the scab off of it. Good-bye 2018. You are a part of a painful past that God helped me to walk through. Like Pandora's Box - it is a past I will not soon plan to open up again - unless it is to help heal someone enduring the same level of pain, grief, betrayal and woeful misunderstandings.
Talk to you next year.
Happy New Year!
Welcome, 2019!
Every year many are poised to make RESOLUTIONS. I am a big advocate for making realistic resolutions. For myself, I make resolutions that are conceivable to be attained so I don't disappoint myself too early and quit the process :-). Of course, I have aspirations to see significant change in my life as well - but I must also bear in mind that God has the final say. The ultimate trajectory of my life belongs to God - I just need to be available to do what he has purposed for me to do. I have a vision for myself, I have written it down - I move in silence and let God be glorified as HE makes perfect those things that concern me.
Being single as we usher in the new year has seemingly been a bit painful for me. I also KNOW some married people who wish they were single and they tell me to value being single! (Ha!). I guess we always want what we don't have (what do you think?). This time of the year, I usher n the "what if" factor. What if I had the person in my life that God has been preparing me for - how would we celebrate? "What if" God wants me single (on purpose) to honor and give HIM the glory - (after all, being single affords me MORE quiet time with the FATHER than if I were joined together with someone). "What if" I stopped wondering - and just be patient and SEE what God unfolds for me. I do admit, for Christmas I posted "THIS IS THE LAST CHRISTMAS I WILL SPEND AS A SINGLE WOMAN ...." (just putting it out there) :-)
I digress.
I have often wondered if "SOME" people see the person they "REALLY" are when they look in the mirror. I mean, in an age of magnificent technological advances, a HE can cam become a SHE (and visa-versa!!). Of course, it is a matter choice but the dating scene makes one ask new questions like "were you born with your plumbing" - or did you buy it? :-) We have become a society of great imitators. If you don't like the nose God gave you - you can "buy" a new one. You can look like essentially ANYONE but at the same time - you lose the authenticity of who YOU really are. Someone somewhere has been praying for someone just like you but now you are playing someone else's role. Come back- Come back wherever you are!
As we resolve to usher in the new year - also resolve to look within yourself for the answers you seek. (that goes for me too!) The answers we are looking for are inside us - we just don't look hard enough for them sometimes. For ME - God has brought untimely difficulties to get me back on track. I was riding along in life believing "IT IS WHAT IT IS" and God interrupted my stride to remind me that I was on HIS timing and not my own. I am concretely here to tell you that God will interrupt your plans - especially if your plans will wreck what HE has planned for you.
In 2018 my daughter lost her father by way of the grave (on MY birthday). Every year on March 27th, I will celebrate another year of life - but have the unmistakable memory of seeing someone I once loved lying in a coffin. Bittersweet loss for sure - I do NOT miss his physical and emotional abuse towards me - nor do I exist in the woulda - coulda - shoulda element or state of being - although he was an absent father - my daughter still his his DNA - so we grieved differently but appropriately. On another note, losing my brother (June 15) and my mother on June 17th (just two days apart in 2017 - is / was and will be part of my life reflection.
Memories.... OUCH!
I was trying to reflect upon what NEWS story seemed to grip my senses the most in 2018. There were so many un-natural disasters BUT the fires in California still "take my breath away". Not to minimize ANY OTHER disaster - but seeing a glimpse of what I imagined the gates of hell looked like was beyond words (for me). The hurricane in Florida that wiped away an entire city, the volcanoes in Hawaii - and the list goes on - Jesus, have mercy! I wish I were in a position to hug everyone affected. The ability to do something tangible, to just "hold the hand" of someone that lost EVERYTHING. From afar, all I felt capable of doing was to pray.
Sexual misconduct in the news caused one of the elite stars in Hollywood to be placed in jail - Bill Cosby. An opulent and lifestyle peppered with grandiosity replaced with handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit. According to the news feeds - shame has been placed on the laps of others in high places - guess similar woes will surface in 2019.
Then there are the teachers who fell from grace for having sex with their students. What about the mass shootings? The statistics will soon be revealed how many women and men wee killed by way of domestic abuse soon. ..... and the unsightly list goes on and on and on.... (surely, I only grazed the surface on painful news in 2018).
There are a multiplicity of complexities in the world but there were many noteworthy events too. Some of the courageous acts of heroic proportions are to be celebrated. Our first responders to our military serving in foreign countries to help America be the land of the free - and the home of the brave. From the sing-mom (or dad) who "made" Christmas happen for little ones who don't know anything about your struggle. BRAVO! To the married wife (or husband) who gets NO credit for making sure the bills are paid each month - STANDING OVATION! To the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, assisted-living employees and the medical professionals who give up their time because they have embraced their call - GOD BLESS YOU!
It was a busy year and the news outlets were never without new material to report. It is the silent "screams" I wish I could help. People who get up and just keep going - facing the world with a smile - no one knowing they are one moment away from "losing their mind" - I "feel" ya!
No one knows what tomorrow holds - we just know God is already there. I just don't believe God is on the Throne looking down at the earth HE created and saying "Hmmmm - I did not see that coming". Let us hold fast to our confession of faith. Pull up our boot straps and hang on for the ride. God is gonna get us through 2010 - look, he got us through 2018.
As i blow out the candle for 2018 and light the new one for 2019 I am praying for my SUDDENLY SEASON! Forgetting those things which are behind - and I am looking forward to 2019 with great expectation. It will require losing people connected to me (if they weigh me down). My eyes are fixed on God. Whatever drama that happened, whatever foolishness that held me hostage has to go. (generational curses are broken). This is not a cliche as much as I am believing God for the manifestation of the things that the enemy would desire to hold hostage from me to be evident in the natural realm. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in HIS sight. Oh, Lord - my Strength and My Redeemer.
Call me crazy but I am looking forward to 2019 to **BLOW MY MIND** with BLESSINGS!! Who is going to join me on this journey of POSITIVE EXPECTATION?
A sore will never heal if you keep pulling the scab off of it. Good-bye 2018. You are a part of a painful past that God helped me to walk through. Like Pandora's Box - it is a past I will not soon plan to open up again - unless it is to help heal someone enduring the same level of pain, grief, betrayal and woeful misunderstandings.
“I’ll make up for the years of the locust,
the great locust devastation—
Locusts savage, locusts deadly,
fierce locusts, locusts of doom,
That great locust invasion
I sent your way.
You’ll eat your fill of good food.
You’ll be full of praises to your God,
The God who has set you back on your heels in wonder.
Never again will my people be despised.
You’ll know without question
that I’m in the thick of life with Israel,
That I’m your God, yes, your God,
the one and only real God.
Never again will my people be despised.
Locusts savage, locusts deadly,
fierce locusts, locusts of doom,
That great locust invasion
I sent your way.
You’ll eat your fill of good food.
You’ll be full of praises to your God,
The God who has set you back on your heels in wonder.
Never again will my people be despised.
You’ll know without question
that I’m in the thick of life with Israel,
That I’m your God, yes, your God,
the one and only real God.
Never again will my people be despised.
Joel 2:25-27 The Message (MSG)
Happy New Year!
Welcome, 2019!
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