hellos and goodbyes

December thirty-first, twenty-fourteen.  My, how time flies.  More than a month since I posted last, and then four before that.  Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.  I'm wondering how the girl who was so afraid of change has now completed her first semester of college and has survived enough to be ordering books for next semester.  I'm wondering at the fact that God often forces us through such change because He knows it's good for us, instead of waiting for us to walk through it of our own will.  I wonder at the great mercy He shows us every day.  I couldn't possibly tell of all the wonderful, hard things I've learned.  But I will say that I am not the same.  

2014 may possibly have been the hardest and longest year I've lived.  Though I saw things that I never want to forget, I also saw things that I do want to forget - but probably never will.  I truly believe that God chose courage for me this year; it wasn't just a mantra, theme, or resolution.  It was tough love, dry bones, saying goodbye, saying hello, asking questions, "reacquaint[ing] my knees with the carpet" (Lifeline, Brooke Fraser).

But even as I discovered how much I don't know, how much I fall short - still I was filled and sustained.  Isn't grace just like that?  Constant and new every morning.  Just as Jesus was, is, and will be, so I want to be steadfast, rooted, anchored in Him.

| In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. ... I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Ephesians 3:12, 16-19 |

And I pray that as 2015 commences, we will grow deeper in our love for Christ and our love for each other.  Not just another New Year's resolution, but the real, honest, taking up of our crosses.  Give me Jesus - every day, every moment - none but Jesus.

there is no one else for me

none but Jesus

crucified to set me free

now I live to bring Him praise