Sometimes the past is about what’s ahead.

     That was my 2019. It wasn’t much of a year in and of itself—it’s really mostly a blur. Maybe you’ve had a year like that too.

Let me explain.

      If I could go back and visit the January 1, 2019 version of myself, in order to impart some sage advice for the coming year, I think my words of wisdom would be something along the lines of, “hold onto your hats, brats, and chewing gum—it’s going to be a wild ride!” (That’s a reference to the original Cheaper by the Dozen, for those of you that missed it 😉).

      That’s because I had no idea the major life changes in store for me, and what that would mean for my 2019. None of the changes were bad (following God’s lead is never, ever bad). They were just, well, a lot.

         My husband joked that we were ripping off the band-aid: new baby, new job, new house, new community, new church, new friends—new everything, it seemed. Of course, this was all very exciting and really pretty fun. But it was also lots of work.

         The hardest part about it was leaving our old life behind. A home, church, community, friends and life into which we had poured ten plus years of blood, sweat and tears. It wasn’t easy. But we knew it was right. Deep in our souls the Lord had spoken to us that it was time to leave that chapter of our lives behind and move forward to something else.

         There were moments in our roller-coaster-of-a-year that I wondered how I was even going to make it. Like the months just following my newest son’s birth when I pored over online real-estate listings daily, wondering how we would find a home that suited our super-sized family in a community where live auctions and word-of-mouth are how houses sell, and online listings are non-existent.

          Or when we finally found the home God had for us, only to learn that we would need to wait and wait and wait on his timing to get it for ourselves, living in limbo between our old life and new one for weeks on end.

          But God is so good.

           Looking back on the exciting, exhausting, emotional, exhilarating year that was 2019, the overall takeaway is that God is good.

…the overall takeaway is that God is good.

         He’s good when you’re closing the chapter on a wonderful decade of life and ministry, even though it’s hard. And there are buckets of tears.

          He’s good when his hands and feet are those that surround you, both helping you close the chapter of your life that’s behind you, and ushering you into the new life that’s ahead of you—a church loving and serving and blessing you before you’ve even had the chance to love and serve and bless them.

          He’s good when he makes a way for a wonderful home that once seemed an impossibility, placing your family in just the right spot you didn’t even know you belonged.

           He’s good even when it seems to take a whole year of work to transition your life out of one decade of serving him, into the next. Looking back, that’s what this year was: months of packing and closing up shop and goodbying, followed by months of unpacking and getting our bearings and finding our place.

         2019 was the Philippians 3:13 year, straining toward what is ahead. Readying ourselves to press on toward the goal. And through it all, God was good. So good.

         How about you? What has God showed you during 2019?