The Last Entry

Well, as I think about the past year, the ups, the downs, the sideways moments, I’m thinking, man, I have NOTHING profound to say. Shocking I know (insert total sarcasm). This always happens to me though, when I want to be profound, I’m so not. When I could care less, that’s when the Lord gives me the goods. So as I ramble on about 2007, please feel free to stop reading and/or critique my last entry. I will not be offended :)

2007 really was a year that began one way and ended in a way I never would have imagined (I know, you all, that is my three friends that read this and at least one of my sisters, are thinking, way to state the obvious Linds). But I can honestly say, the lessons I learned far outweigh the heartbreak and turmoil. Would it have been nice to have learned them in a different way? Yes, absolutely. But I don’t think I would have experienced the remarkable growth otherwise (not to mention the humbling effect of posting your life on the internet for a year). I could bore you with specifics, but I think this line sums it all up:

Summiting Mt. Rainier in 2008 is simply the physical manifestation of the emotional and spiritual journey I went on in 2007. (Thank you Pia for putting my thoughts into words others can understand).

AMEN!

I have learned more about the woman God created me to be and I really like her. And I don’t mean that in a “wow, I’m great, let me pat myself on the back” kind of way. But rather, WOW! Thank you Lord, for opening my eyes to the creation you made that you called Lindsey. Thank you for my strengths, my weaknesses, my likes, my dislikes. And thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that I am ever evolving, that you will always be refining me, and making me into the woman you created me to be. Thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that I don’t ever have to settle for “well, this is just how I am.” And Lord help me if I ever get that way again!

But most importantly, thank you for showing me that I don’t have to do this on my own, that in fact, I can’t do any of it on my own, only by your Spirit.

Thank you for opening my heart. Thank you for showing me that my ability to love can only go as far as my love for you. And thank you Lord for loving me first so that I might love you back. Thank you for your promises and the TRUTH that you are faithful to fulfill them all in your time, as you are a God that cannot lie.

This is a truly bittersweet entry, as this blog has been an extension of me this past year. But alas, it was created with an end-date in mind (read the first entry) and we’ve reached it :) 2007 taught me to never assume what your future will look like, so to that, I look forward to the endless possibilities for 2008. I wonder, what will I have to say December 31, 2008? Hopefully I made it to the top of Mt. Rainier and lived to tell about it!

I leave you with this profoundly appropriate devotional and I pray for abundant blessings for all in 2008!

You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. ". . . God requires an account of what is past" ( Ecclesiastes 3:15 ). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. ". . . the Lord will go before you . . . ." This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our "rear guard." And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. "You shall not go out with haste . . . ." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

- Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

thanks for your hospitality tonight amanda, becky and ashley!