And we’re back to February again. Man, how does that happen so fast? You start out preparing for Christmas, all excited for the season. Then New Year’s is right around the corner; we’re making goals and plans for change and growth. And before we know it, January has come and, quite suddenly, gone. We’ve got more than just our toes into 2020 now.
February also marks the second year for GraceBought, which is exciting! Moving into my third year blogging seems kind of strange. It really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. But…that’s the strange thing about seasons, isn’t it. Sometimes we never realize how far we’ve come until we look up.
Time. Time is constant. But seasons change. They come and go, ebb and flow. We watch as time weaves it’s spell and then…when we look up, an eternity has passed before our very eyes. Often without our having noticed.
It’s how Christmas turns to Easter and then summer and then school starts again and leaves begin to change. It’s how a new year springs up just as you learn to write the date right on your checks. It’s how little fingers and toes turn into looking up into the eyes of your own child. It’s how scared faces tucked into your skirts turn into strong men and women facing their own life-altering decisions. You look up and suddenly, they aren’t just standing up with the help of a coffee table anymore, they aren’t even walking on wobbly hobbit feet anymore, they’re running full speed ahead without so much as a glance back at you.
Time brings change. And change hurts sometimes. Change scares some people. And others it frees. I think it’s good to look up from our lives every now and again, to look up and back. We spend January reminiscing and plotting world domination for the upcoming year. And it’s a good exercise. We need to clear our heads of the cobwebs and refocus. But by February, many times, we’ve lost steam. Our energy is already eaten up and we’re back to sticking our heads in the sand.
Growth is change. We have to be intentional about growing, purposeful about changing, or we’ll never get better. We can’t just plateau. If we leave our lives without intentional direction, we won’t move forward and maintain the same level. We’ll fall. If left unattended, we won’t stay the course, steady or strong. We’ll regress. If we aren’t plunging forward on purpose, we will take a nosedive. Draymond Green puts it this way, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.”
We spend so much time in January dreaming up a better life and promising ourselves we’ll follow through. But sometimes it’s easier to stay in our stink than to make the effort to change, to grow. And, if we aren’t careful, we’ll look up again and have lost ground rather than gained it.
As scary as change can be, and painful as growth is sometimes, we can’t leave our lives on autopilot and expect the exceptional. We can’t allow ourselves to be okay with mediocrity. We have to take our lives by the reigns and choose to grow, to change, to become who we want to be. To become who we’re made to be.
God has a plan. And He loves us so much that He gives us a choice. We can choose to be a part of that plan, to follow Him. Or…we can choose to rebel and thus doom ourselves to watching His plan unfold in spite of ourselves.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being left behind.
God’s plan takes time to unfold. We don’t always see how it’s going to work out. But He is in control. It will work out. And He is good, which means His plan is good. Our Heavenly Father wants what’s best for us.
Sometimes we don’t see very clearly with these earthly eyes. Sometimes the fire we’re in makes our eyes water and our lungs burn. But just like the child we comfort who is growing three inches in a year, God holds our hand. He strokes our brow and tell us it’s okay; they’re just growing pains.
God walks through the fire with us. The fire is refining us, growing us, making us into who He made us to be. We just have to learn to trust God in this season and watch Him move. Then, when we look up and back, we’ll see how far we’ve truly come.
Trust is hard to develop. And it can be destroyed in an instant. But I challenge you to put your trust in God, no matter what you see, no matter how much it hurts. I challenge you to place that precious, tender trust in Him. And then watch Him work wonders in your life.
God has plans for us, amazing plans that we can’t even comprehend. And if we’ll follow Him, if we’ll trust Him, He will amaze us. God is good, and so are His plans. And we are certainly not powerful enough to mess up God’s plans, which means no matter how far we’ve strayed, He will always welcome us home again with open arms.
Proverbs 16:9 says that “A man’s heart plans his course, but the Lord directs His steps.” He promises to guide us. But we have to take the step. As scary as that sounds, take the step. As painful as the growth can be, take the step.
Make your plans, live your life on purpose. Don’t wander aimlessly or give up hope when your motivation falters. Don’t beat yourself up when you fall off the wagon. Time stops for no man, but that doesn’t mean we should give up. When we fail, when we can’t see through the smoke or when our lungs are heavy with the smoke, we have to determine to push on, to keep pressing forward, to trust in the One who wove us together and set us apart.
Look up. See how far you’ve already come. And then trust that God is growing you. Follow His lead. Take His hand and find comfort in the Father when it hurts. Know that when you can’t see your way through, His plan will prevail. His purpose is good. And His love is boundless.
Love always,
Coralie