From India to Austin, Austin to California and back again, Kansas City to Oregon, Pennsylvania to Georgia, Ohio to Austin, and once again from Austin to California and back again. My year has been full of transitions and my suitcase easily accessible. While I love to travel, it is nice to recollect on the past year with the knowledge that I will be in California for 6 whole months. I suppose I am beginning to feel the desire to nest somewhere….nah. I love travel just as much now as I did a year ago, if not more, but I am in a unique season. While this season is still unfolding, I would like recount the beauty of 2011.
What transpired in 2011 is mind boggling. I had the privilege of going to India, I wrote music and bought a guitar, I moved out of the house that I had been living for the past two years, I graduated from College, I took a road trip to Oregon with my family, I adventured in Pennsylvania, Atlanta, and Ohio, I moved to California, I went to Hawaii with my family, I visited Austin for over a month, and then I moseyed on back to California to greet the blessings and mysteries of 2012. -phew- The lessons I learned in the past year have been priceless. I feel like a different person in the best of ways. I feel more stable, because, through hardships and transition, my roots have grown deeper into the heart of God. I can feel it. I don’t get flustered as easy I used to and I look at the future with such hope. I think this is because, if anything, I have begun to embrace the present. I have been learning how to love what is in front of me (friendships, seasons, living arrangements, places, and even myself). There is something very calming in the fact that there really is “no lack in the Kingdom.” There is also something very secure in the Love of God. He loves me and I know it. I don’t have to earn it. I can’t tell you how many times HE spoke it to my heart, or how many more times I will need to hear it, but I believe it in a deeper way now than I did before. He is my stability. His love has shaken me to the core time and time again and I am left undone. Thus, I look back at the past few years and am amazed. What once seemed annoying or random, now has such purpose and significance. God really does guide the steps of the righteous. He knows my destination and He will bring it to pass. I can rest in the shadow of His wings. He has provided every time I have been in need and He will do it again. This is my journey. These lessons are part of my unfolding story. Banning Liebscher says “The process is the very thing in your life that prepared you for what He showed you…. God shows you and then He grows you.” This is very very true. I know that I am stepping into a new season, but one thing is for sure, I wouldn’t trade my history with God for anything, not even the hard parts of the process or the tension that often presents itself in transition. I see what He has done through the process and I now know the continued outcome of embracing each season.
2012…I welcome you with enthusiasm.
