Are we still saying Happy New year?  Still feels right :) 

In the last episode that actually came out on January 1st, I talked about this desire I’ve had the past few years to linger in the celebration as opposed to my prior years of running off full steam into a new year. And I said this last week's episode and I’ll say it again in no way am I wanting to stop you from running full steam into a new year or suggest that is a wrong mindset to have at this time of year. I’m cheering you on whether you’re running, walking, or crawling. I’m simply offering what’s on my heart and inviting you as always to listen to the whispers of what God is whispering in your heart. 

With that being said…as I’ve been intentionally moving slowly into the new year…moving ahead while simultaneously remaining in the spirit of joy and peace and love and all that the celebration of Christ’s birth represents in our lives …I started thinking about how it’s really about making peace with living life embracing mystery.

If you knew me as a child you would know mystery was something I loved and the crazy fact… I had file folders on each of my family members where I kept important details like “mom is in the kitchen…again…I wonder what she’s up to…I’ll continue to keep a lookout.

So I’ve always had a curious mind and still to this day love deep diving into an investigation or storyline and piecing together detail to solve or make sense of something.

And I started thinking that’s similar to our walk of faith…

We long to have the perfect answer to our questions and make sense of all that we feel doesn’t make sense 

And most of my life I felt like I had those answers I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older that all the answers I had and freely shared with others weren’t necessarily the correct ones.

To be clear what I’m not saying is the faith I’ve had my whole life is not true and truth.

What I’m saying is I think to make ourselves feel safe and secure we have felt like we have to have a complete understanding of something “the correct answer” 

And I’m thinking that this life of faith is maybe more about embracing the mystery and reality that is talked about in 1 Corinthians 13:12

We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

 

I guess what I’m leaning into… it’s a deeper reliance and relationship with God and confidence and faith and trusts in him than any understanding I might have. And realizing whatever understanding I have is still lacking…

And at the same time standing in the truth that in God there is no lack.

Everything that we need is found in him…

That’s good news. 

At the start of a new year, there is always emphasis put on having a plan or resolutions or a word that represents desires for the new year and trying to balance all that with intentionally embracing the mystery that this journey of faith invites us into can feel a little... Shall we say “unclear?”

And then I continued on reading Chapter 13 in Corinthians…

I loved how one translation started off verse 13 it said “But as for now…”

And I’m like, I”m listening … 

Help me see how I am being invited to live after you’ve talked about how I’m not seeing the whole picture.

Here are the beautiful verses that followed what I read earlier…

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, and love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

TRUST STEADILY IN GOD

Firm in position FIXED!

Not easily disturbed or upset

HOPE UNSWERVINGLY

Steady

Unfaltering 

LOVE EXTRAVAGANTLY

Exceeding the limits of reason or necessity

AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE!!!

So if you find yourself at the start of a new year 

Like you need some direction or some kind of plan

Here it is

Plain and simple

And it’s for all of us