It is NOT over!!!
Dec 31st 2010
I’m sitting in my living room listening to Ricardo Sanchez’s song, I Call Your Name playing silently on my Ipod which plays around the clock in my house and reflecting on the past year. The good times…The not so good times… The laughter… The tears… The fun… The Pain…and I’m thankful.
Things didn’t always go the way I wanted them to go or even the way I thought that they should have gone… But, as I sit here and reflect, through the good and the not so good, I’ve been blessed.
The lyrics of the song really convey my heart and the emotion that I feel as I reflect back over the past 12 months that seemingly flew by…
Holy
Lord God Almighty
ancient of days
giver of faith
Lord I need you
Worthy
Lord your deserving
of all I have
I lay me down
Lord I need you
I call your name
Lord you reply
You bring your kingdom
To stand by my side
giver of life
all that I need
father your everything that is precious to me
There is no one like you lord in all the earth
I’m not sure where I would be or in many cases how I would have made it without Him…As I said earlier, I am thankful… I’m thankful because I choose to be… I could focus on what didn’t happen in 2010 and if I chose to allow that to be what I highlighted in my mind and heart for 2010 then I would enter 2011 with an ungrateful attitude… But I CHOOSE to see how much good there was in this year and let the things that weren’t on my “happy list” simply be a small part of a greater whole. God is so faithful!
I stood two feet from where I am typing this yesterday holding my almost 3 year old son, listening to music and carrying him around a dark living room praying over him remembering the day he was born… the weeks following in the NICU when machines were breathing for him and I couldn’t hold him or let him put his head on my shoulder like he was at that moment… and I was thankful…. Just him being here and all the fun experiences that I had this past year that he was a part of is enough to have made 2010 a good…a GREAT year!
The memories created with my family and friends… The people that I was able to influence… The lives that were saved and changed because God used me to be his hands, feet, and/or voice…. I choose today to remember those times… and I believe that 2011 will be full of MORE of those kinds of memories!
I believe that the rest of my life is the best of my life… I believe that seed sown always produces a harvest… I believe that what God observes in secret He rewards openly… I believe that my tomorrows are filled with hope and destiny! …I believe!
I heard my pastor say yesterday, “Once you are where God needs you to be, you are one day from stepping into destiny”… He was referencing Joseph in the old testament who at 17 was sold into slavery by his brothers who told his father he was killed by an animal, then he was lied about, he was lied to, he was cheated, he wronged, he was put into prison for crimes he didn’t commit and he spent 13 years in that repetitive cycle that he didn’t deserve…but he was being molded and God used that season in his life to prepare him for the responsibility of becoming the second in command over all of Egypt (the most powerful nation on earth at the time) under Pharaoh…and that promotion took place for him overnight. That promotion saved Egypt from starvation and devastation. Although, the road to the palace was not paved with gold…It was that season that positioned him to save the lives of every one of his family members and an entire nation… I believe that, in spite of what we have had to endure, each of us has destiny to fulfill! If you are still here, you still have a voice of influence!
A friend of mine recently said to me, “Aaron, I’m convinced that God never wastes pain”… I love that and am actually a walking model of it! I’m not saying He is the author of it…I’m not saying that He is the reason for it…I’m saying that He will use it to better you and propel you beyond where you have been to where you need to be to have the most significant impact…I, for one will not be satisfied leaving this life without changing the world…Literally! As the scripture says, “He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose…So, as we close out a year that many have struggled through with blood, sweat and tears…Be encouraged! He who has begun a good work in you IS FAITHFUL TO COMPLETE IT! It may be the end of a season called 2010, but IT IS NOT OVER!!! 2011 is MINE!!! Who’s coming with me?!
The rest of your life IS the best of your life!
I love you all! Happy New Year!
Aaron
I want to believe what you say and find that same hope and that the rest of my life is the best of my life. Somehow I can’t wrap my mind around this. Sorry for what you may call negativity. It’s what I call reality.
It’s ok… your reality can change…
How tho Aaron? How can it? Sry to put you on the spot and all but I just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not even sure there IS one anymore. Sorry for venting. I don’t mean to. Just stumbled on your writing and it intrigued me. I want to believe. I want to care again. Just can’t deal with it all or rather don’t know how.
One day at a time… Check out some of those sermons that I recommended on my church website as well.. that is a great place to start… Begin to readjust your focus with positive things and implement them one at a time… http://www.OasisChurch.tv (On Demand Link)
One day at at time it is then. I am so sad sometimes, and I want a way out, for all this to end. it has to. but, in an act of desperation, I randomly watched a message and bawled like a baby at these and some other thoughts “every life that is falling apart is falling apart one thought at a time” and “God wouldn’t put you on this planet without a blueprint.” I want to care and think it is true for me too.
It is absolutely true for you too! Without a doubt!
do you think you could say a prayer for me? I want to give up, I just want this to end. but, if there really is more, I want that too.
I will absolutely pray… Father God, I thank you for my friend who has reached out and is seeking a touch from you. I pray right now, just as your Word says that you will give the peace that passes all understanding. Your Word calls you the Prince of Peace and says that you will send your Holy Spirit, the comforter to us in our times of need. So I’m asking right now, that you will continue to direct their path and reveal yourself to them. I pray for healing, strength and peace in the name of Jesus… Amen…
just wanted to come back and tell you i did not give up. its still a fight, but i’m still fighting. i have come back to and read that prayer in the comment above that you prayed in July a few times since. Things are not easy, but no one promised us easy just strength. tomorrow will come, and it will keep coming. that is what someone told me and i’m learning to believe it. thank you for caring and for sharing that things do and did have the potential to change. i’m living proof this is true. circumstances do change.
Fantastic! Keep on keepin on!
i think i want to know Jesus, like really know him. how though. how does that work? how does one get to that point.