Happy First, StickyNoteDevo!
Has it been a year?
Has it been a year!
(Yes… both a question AND an exclamation)
As we tend to do alongside milestones, I rummaged through happenings and memories of the recent 12 months, a refresher of the little and the large that life offered in this season. A phrase I found on repeat in my thought-filled digging—“That was this year?! It seems like longer (or shorter) ago.” I noted a mixture of good, happy, challenges, tests, and struggles. Mountaintops and downright terrible. Birth and death. Travel and stuck. Connection and distance. Celebrate and quietly forget. I’m sure you can relate.
I didn’t get it all recorded, to stuff this space with revelation and stories of Godly trust, as I expected or desired. Most days, just living is a full-time job. But in my mind I wrote about Him and to Him every day, an outpouring of novels and poems and anguish and songs and frustration and flowery prose and utmost praise, a million words that were never enough. Most never made it to a notebook or past a blinking cursor. Good intentions are never published.
Throughout my reminiscing, though, I could not deny the most prominent feature in 365 of the last 365 days—God’s presence and His unbounded faithfulness. Every day. Even in and by my own definitions of good and not so great (which isn’t necessarily the same as He defines it). I remember many days when I would have given a lot of something to change or not go through what was hurting or heavy at the moment. To save myself or a loved one from a painful expense.
Yet, we were never promised a carefree, bubble-wrapped life with Christ; heck, we might not even get a breather between crises. We may be overwhelmed, or stuck. Very likely to be failing and flailing all over on any given day. And in these, more often than we desire, not “feeling” Him with us, our flesh, lies, and enemy deceptions standing as blockades, preventing us knowing how really near He always is.
As believers, Christians, we get Him, we truly do have Him—faithful, present, plugged-in; the Light, the Hope, the always-ahead, ever-watchful, never-changing, never moving away from His character and nature… or us. We have His goodness and His wonderful works (stated 4 times in Psalm 107!) He pulls through for us every time, whether we recognize it or not.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ~2 Corinthians 4:8-9
You know how we say in our common speech that whatever words are after the ‘but’ negate everything that was said before it? Well, in these 2 Corinthians verses, Jesus and His promise and His faithfulness is the ‘but’…
~ We’re so often under a ton of stress and pressure and hardship, but there is no power great enough to smash us with any damaging effects where we are—IN Christ.
~ We may be confused and misguided and without understanding, but we’re never at the end of our rope and without options or hope—IN Christ.
~ We’re picked on, lied about, and left out, even abused, tortured, or imprisoned, but we’re never ever left alone or separated from the love of God—IN Christ.
~ We fall hard, choose terribly, suffer at the hands of family, friends, or strangers; depression, grief, and addiction slap us silly without reprieve, but in the midst of all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us; but since He is for us, who or what can be against us; but who can be our foe since He is on our side; but when we are weak, His power is perfected in us; but He is victorious over all the works of the enemy… and we are in Him and He is in us, therefore we are “but not destroyed”; we’re just not.
I confess to experiencing most of 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 this year. Which means I’ve also faced His faithfulness. I didn’t always have my head up while doing so, though; thankfully, I can do nothing to diminish Him. Neither can you. Ever. No matter what.
Kind and gracious Father,
I thank You for the privilege and honor of knowing You and writing about You and to You. I thank You for the freedom I have in this country, place, time, and web space to freely share and declare You and Your word without punishment, as many countries do not allow this same freedom. I thank You for Your so great love, grace, mercy, and longsuffering with us; for the revelation of Your word through Your Holy Spirit presence. Thank You for entering in to every small and great moment and for how You perfectly minister to every need, every desire. Thank You for sending Your word to heal us and deliver us from our destruction. Oh, and for Your tenacious faithfulness. In the mighty name of Jesus…
Pressing on… the future is brilliantly lit.
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image by ana tavares on unsplash