15 Lessons

To say I don’t much like New Year’s Eve would be a gross understatement.

I’m not really sure why…

Maybe it’s that I’m so sentimental and have a hard time letting go. And the harder I grasp at those last fleeting moments of the year, the faster they slip away. Like the way a mother grips her toddler’s finger to hold him close, yet eventually she has to release him as she can’t hold on forever.

Maybe it’s the security of knowing. And while the New Year holds loads of promise, it is also unknown territory.

Maybe it’s that “packing for camp” feeling that I got every dang time I left home…homesick even before I left…for a destination I was excited about.

Maybe it’s that I hold the old year in my arms like it is old friend or relative…not wanting it to leave. Because even with all of its faults, it is the good that I always focus on.

I am tonight, as I am every single year, melancholy once again as that darn ball gets ready to drop.

2008 was an interesting year. It held some huge blessings and some monumental disappointments. And with the good and the bad came a multitude of life lessons:

1. Sometimes my very best is total and 100% stink. (This will be a future blog topic all on its own!).

2. I’m too old to care what people think. I never want to be inappropriate or offensive, but with me what you see is what you get, and if you don’t like me it is really OK.

3. Humility is a wonderful lesson to learn. It is an amazing thing to realize that you are as insignificant as a grain of sand, and yet that you have a purpose in this life that no one can carry out but you.

4. A contrarian am I. I always have been and always will be.

5. That crazy God! …He’s still got plenty of tricks up his sleeve on my behalf. (And on your behalf, too!)

6. No matter what I do for others it is never enough. But I don’t mean that in an “I-can’t-ever-do-enough-poor-me” kind of way. I mean it in a “let’s-see-if-I-can-out-do-myself-cause-what-I’ve-already-done-was-a-great-attempt-but-let’s-ramp-it-up” kind of way.

7. Listen to the gut!

8. It is really important that you sink in! Changing churches & becoming part of Grace was the best thing I have done for my personal spiritual growth in a long, long time. (No “thanks” can ever express it, Lisa!) We actually started going in ‘07, but we didn’t “sink in” till ’08, & the sinking in is where it's at!

9. It is more important than ever to make time for the people in your life. But it is also OK to let go of some people, too.

10. I really love having and writing a blog! I have a lot to say…and it is very possible that it is stuff that no one actually wants to hear. But if it helps one person fall into deeper relationship with Christ, or gives one person the opportunity to read quietly at midnight because she is too scared to ask aloud, the purpose has been served.

11. I’ve squelched my creativity for a few years…because I was busy…but I have to realize that the creativity and other talents that I have were specifically given to me for a reason, and I have to use them in order for them to be increased. This is non-negotiable & I have seen proof of this over and over in my life this year. This is true for all of us, so if this resonates with you, take heed.

12. Not only must I use the gifts I have been given, but I am required to use them at the place where I already am if I want them to grow.

13. I seek and appreciate truth more than I ever have before.

14. Slow & steady wins the race and you must build on fertile ground.

15. If you ask for truth, understanding, and wisdom, pursuing God relentlessly, He will reveal it to you. But in His time and through His ways.

In about ten minutes it will be 2009. I will probably feel like crying as that old friend, 2008, slips out the door and it softly closes behind him. Instead of crying, I will try to focus on the gratitude I feel for baseball games, for family gatherings, for my church and my spot on the risers in the choir, for new friends & old, for birthday parties, and for leopard print shoes.

I will focus on gratitude for a God who continually delights and challenges me, who never gives up on me ~ or you ~ and is always waiting on us to want Him by our side. A God who made us to be like Him, knowing that we never can be, but is so very proud of us for trying.

May you be richly blessed in 2009, and may it teach you a multitude of wonderful lessons as it settles in to become your new and dear friend.

Question: What did 2008 teach you?