Saying Goodbye to 2008

In a couple days we’ll bring in a New Year. There is always something about that marker that gets me excited. I usually start a new devotional. Spend some time the first of each year focusing on the Lord and what He wants to say to me for that new year and setting the tone for the year to come. But I also spend time reflecting. Which is what I was doing last night.

My dad is repainting his office and had taken all of his books down from his book shelf. So, he had me and my older brother come over and go through them. Over forty-five years of ministering were on those shelves. And I honestly don’t know how I’m going to get all the ones I picked out home. But he also had some old tapes of sermons that he had preached. So, I stuck a couple in my purse and listened to them last night when I had some time alone.

As one of them started it had me on there singing a song, yes, I know, me singing, but yep, use to do that every now and then. And what I found were the words to that song far more relevant now, some fifteen years later, than when they had originally been sung. They said:

He’s just as real to me.
As if I’d held His hand a million times.
And though I’ve never seen Him smile I know I’ve felt Him by my side.
These ears have never heard Him speak.
My heart has heard Him time and time again.
Just like a friend would be. He’s just as real to me.

When I recount this past year what I recount the most is how real God has been. I think so often it’s so easy to focus on where we don’t feel like He is working instead of taking time to realize where He is. I’ve discovered that it’s usually not that God isn’t working in my life, it’s that I’m not in the middle of what He ‘s doing. I’m trying to fit Him into my plans, instead of placing myself into the middle of His plans. Where is God moving? Because that’s where I want to be.

But He is moving. And He has moved. This year I’ve watched as He has protected me, provided for me, met me in my lonely moments and been a companion to me. I’ve seen the times where He’s spoken to my heart so beautifully. Not just through His word things that have challenged me. But to my heart, to those specific places. Those places only He knows.

One came recently on a Sunday evening. Everyone had gone home after we had watched the Titans game and I just felt that tug on my heart that He wanted to spend time with me. So, I went to that old familiar spot we have, my little path that goes through the foyer, dining room and around the front hall. And I began to walk, and we began to talk. And in that moment I felt Him speak something so precious to my heart about my future. So personal. So like a Father. And I found myself a heap on the floor. And when I got up, I said, “Well, that sure beats the other times I’ve been a heap in this floor.” Because trust me, the other times with my face in the carpet weren’t happy tears.

I’ve found Him a lot in the morning hours too. When I’m waking up, before the day has started, I feel that whisper not to cut on the TV. Just to lie there a while and talk with Him. And I’ve been amazed how much in those moments He has whispered to my heart.

The new year offers you and I a clean slate, so to speak. I’m not talking resolutions. I think life should always be about turning and changing and growing and learning. But a moment to get out a new calendar, pack up the old receipts of 08 and clean out the desk drawer. A moment to refocus, reevaluate and regroup. And it also offers us the opportunity to draw close to the one who desires to draw close to us.

As this old year closes down, take a few moments to recount all the ways God has been there in your life. Trust me, if you look, you’ll be able to see them. If you’re having trouble ask Him to help you. He loves to reveal Himself. And then as the new year opens take some time in the beginning of it to spend time with Him in a different way maybe than you have in the past. And let this new year give you what He so desires for you to have, a relationship that makes Him real to you.