A New Beginning

 

It has been over 3 years since I have written anything for this blog. I didn’t plan it that way – it just happened. At the time of my last post, we were right in the middle of the COVID pandemic and struggling to keep our heads above water in an ever-changing lifestyle and increasingly divisive political culture. The beginning of the 2020’s was hard for everyone.

Personally, a lot has changed since my last post. In 2020, I had two adopted grandchildren; today I have four! Since 2020, my husband and I have moved and attend a new church. Our second son has met the love of his life and given us a new daughter-in-law. My husband and I have lost two more parents (my Mom and his Dad), leaving only one more elder in our family. My husband underwent a life-changing medical issue that included 136 days of hospitalization and skilled nursing facilities and, for a time, the imminence of his departure from this world. Today we are very grateful for his new liver and a new lease on life. After the long stall of COVID and my husband’s recovery, we have been blessed to travel again to explore new scenery in Hawaii and Glacier National Park as well as many trips to SoCal to spend time with our grandchildren. And I have reached the milestone of signing up for Medicare and regularly feel the effects of the aging process happening in my body. The last words I wrote in 2020 were Philippians 4:7 – “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This verse is more precious today than when I originally wrote it because I have had new opportunities to experience its truth in my daily life.

It would be easy to focus on all that has changed in my life and re-define myself in terms of those things. But I would rather focus on what hasn’t changed in the past three years. First of all, life today is good; but it is still hard and might not get easier! Through every change and every difficulty, we have the opportunity for personal/spiritual growth and the option to choose joy in every circumstance. Joy will always be a choice, no matter what happens in the world or in our own lives. This is still what walking daily with Jesus looks like. The life of faith will always include both difficulty and joy, and we will always have to choose what to focus on. In his garden prayer before his death, Jesus acknowledged the difficulty but chose the joy of surrender. I want to choose to be honest about the difficulty but joyful through the process.

Another thing that has not changed since 2020 (and never will!) is that God is faithful. And he is continually giving blessings to his children even in the face of hardship and grief. This is a part of his character, and it is not possible for God to be unfaithful. He is motivated by his deep love for us, and he wants to bless us with gifts that are good for us (James 1:17). God is with us, he is for us, and he is in us! There’s nothing else we could possibly need.

Simply put, God is still good . . . all the time. And the lasting peace that he gives is still so much better than any “peace” I can find without him, because it is eternal (John 14:27). As I re-start sharing my thoughts with you in this blog, I hope you will be encouraged wherever life takes you in 2024 and beyond. And these old lyrics from a Michael Card song resonate with me as I begin a new year of walking with God:

“There is a joy in the journey,

There’s a light we can love on the way.

There is a wonder and wildness to life,

And freedom for those who obey.”