Ending on a High Note

Here’s how my first post of 2011 ended:

This should be an exciting year.  I’ve already felt like God is reminding me that I can’t do it alone.  Of course not!  I wasn’t designed that way.  None of us were.  I feel like there will be challenges, but there will also be growth.  I think it will be a year of faith-building.  Furthermore, it will be crucial that I let God be in control.  I’m excited to see what’s next.  I know His love never fails, and He will be with me every step away.  Bring it on, 2011!

About a month after that was written, I received a phone call telling me my mom had stage IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  About nine months after that was written, I lost my job in a company-wide position elimination.  This year has certainly had its challenges.  I am ending it uninsured.  I am ending it without my friend since fifth grade, my dog, Pebbles.  I am ending it… hopeful.

When visiting my uncle a couple of weeks ago, we took a walk, and he asked me how I was doing after losing my job.  I told him it was hard to be discouraged.  He was surprised by my response.

How can I not be discouraged?  I have every right to be.  The best answer I can come with is God doesn’t let me.

It’s not that I never feel the weight of the world, but that I know who to give it to when I do.  That is, when God even lets me feel it to begin with.  I left my job on a Wednesday and was hired for a seasonal position that Friday.  I watched my mom go through the hardest fight of her life and come out closer to God and healed of cancer!  Throughout the year, we have been blessed with everything from food to money to many words of support, and we have been bathed in prayer.  It’s been a difficult year, but through it, we were taught trust and obedience, our faith was built, and we’ve seen God’s hands at work.

With that, I look at 2011 as a year of triumph.  And it wasn’t all sad beginnings with happy endings.  I’ve got to have some incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experiences like they grow on trees.  It has been a year of celebration with weddings, babies, holidays, and praising God for how awesome He is.  And I end this year on a high note, closer to Him.

I’m heading into 2012 with many unanswered questions.  There is a lot of uncertainty, but like I told my uncle, it’s hard to get discouraged.  My mom is having an excellent recovery.  I’ll begin the year praising and worshiping God with thousands of others.  From there, it’ll be time to go back to work.  And although I don’t know what happens next, God does–and I know God.

Happy New Year, everyone!  May you all trust in Jesus Christ and make this best year you’ve ever had, living for Him!

Mom and I, Thanksgiving Day