remember this post?
well someone caught the hint and i got the calendar for christmas! it’s so rad! 
raigan and i leave tomorrow morning for pasadena, california! woo-hoo! this will be my 3rd time ringing in the new year with my cousin nicole and friends from pasadena. it’s rather strange to look back on the last several years… the 1st year nicole and bethany and i roadtripped out there because nicole and jonathan were dating. it was all awkward and fun and the guys threw a killer sabrina-style party! the following year was another party, but this time nicole and jonathan were married! i went early to spend time with them and help out with party prep. it was an incredible week, as God was doing some hardcore work in my heart. and this year – wow, how things have changed. in 12 short months i feel as if my life has changed so much. so much has happened! it reminds me of an analogy a friend of mine used at the 24:7 winter retreat last year. she said, “sometimes it doesn’t seem as if growth or change is occuring at all. then you look back a couple weeks or months and you realize that God has been at work, you just couldn’t see or sense it in the moment. sort of like the rotation of the earth. it doesn’t feel like we’re spinning around, or traveling around the sun, but at the end of 30 days, we’ve turned an entire rotation!”
have you stopped to think about what was going on in your life at this time last year? how has God met you and proved His faithfulness over again in the last 12 months?
be amazed, my friends! we serve an active God!
I totally agree with you. Sometimes I sense that I am growing in fits and starts, or I see lack of growth in one area that I wanted to see growth in, only to find that God has actively been working in other places. I think often that we are most blind to God’s working because we expect certain areas to grow first, while God may have different, but still, glorious plans for our lives. I remember one time that I had been faced by myself and I was shocked. I dropped everything and ran in the opposite direction, paying little heed to what God was doing. About four months later, in talking with friends, our conversation drifted to specific ways God had changed me, and I had no awareness whatsoever. I knew it was God’s hand and it also encouraged and prompted me to greater desire for the gospel. We do indeed serve an ACTIVE God!
I loooove this post!! thank you dear!!
i am very much going through this in my life – AS WE SPEAK. *grin* God has been so very kind to place me in a caregroup with people who will not only tell me where I need to grow, but also where I AM! They are so quick to give glory to God through sharing how they see Him at work in my life. My temptation at times is to deny it though, because I am so aware of my heart and how I struggle sometimes it’s hard to see where there really has been change.
Yay for Stranger Than Fiction! and I love how you said the party was done “sabrina-style”. I remember that party being described to me, and it reminded me of that movie too. I like what you (and your friend) said about change too. I love it how whatever we do means something because God is behind it. It could be unpleasant for the moment, but at least we are always changing and if we’re resting in Christ, we are changing in ways that will give him glory. Considering how random we think life is sometimes, isn’t it strange and wonderful to think that every little bit fits perfectly into his plan? Love it.
im confused. how come the link goes to my site?
hi friend! see you in less than a month 🙂
Happy New Year my friend! Yes indeed, looking back over this year I can see God’s hand at work! Thank you for the reminder to be looking.
the link goes to my site too 🙂