I blinked and it’s already December.
It’s tempting to think about all the things that are still outstanding that I was hoping for for 2024, but I cannot take for granted that I have something that cannot be replaced: life. As long as I’m alive, there’s still hope, there’s still opportunity. It sounds cheesy and ridiculous, but having hope, and having the life to realize your hopes is as precious and as irreplaceable as time.
On this day, I find myself grateful unto God for the year. I find myself releasing control and accepting that there are years that require warfare, and the years thereafter that come with peace. I remember a quote that I read some years ago that says “there are years that ask questions, and years that answer.” I read this quote four years ago, thinking the answers in that year finally came; not knowing they were about to unravel in the most unexpected way.
You know, the years of warfare, years of pruning, years of uprooting, of praying, are not easy years, but I thank God for strength. I thank God for the ability to persevere despite the less than ideal circumstances that I find myself in. And sincerely, having the mind to hope and expect and believe and see better days ahead is not to be taken for granted.
One of the hardest things to do is to hang on to that impossible dream when everything around you is the exact opposite of what you’re expecting, and you’re getting older and it just seems like there’s no hope; that a short cut is the best way to realize your dreams. But as God instructed Joshua, you have to be “strong and very courageous” to hang on to what God has promised and believe for it. This year has been a year that has opened my eyes to the fact that the good things promised by God are worth waiting for, as challenging and often foolish as it may seem. It has reinforced that we ought to care about our destiny and fight for it. It has taught me that I, and my life, and my future are worth fighting for. And I’m grateful that my eyes were opened to see this. I’m grateful that my eyes and ears were opened to the truth that was obscure. I’m grateful that my naïveté about certain things was burned away.
If you’ve ever read Plato’s allegory of the cave, imagine yourself as one of those people bound in chains, beholding the shadows on the cave wall, thinking they are real, unable to move from where you are, oblivious, and unable to perceive the truth around you. The past 31 years of my life have been like this. It’s in this 32nd year that the veil has been removed and light has shone to expose darkness and destroy it. And darkness will continue to be exposed and destroyed as I continue in Christ Jesus.
I’m grateful that the eyes of my understanding are being opened. The things around me and the people around me are not what they seem. The world we live in, the spaces we occupy, the families we come from, the people we encounter are not ordinary. It sounds ridiculous, but life isn’t what we’ve been made to believe it is. I’m grateful that I’m beginning to see it for myself.
