What was...What is... What will be...

Dec 31, 2008

Shutting the day on the year.

If I was to pick a word that sums up the year past it would simply be: Survive

If I was to pick a word for the year to come it would be: Thrive

Nothing about the past can be changed.
It has been written in indelible ink.

Makes you wish you had taken more care with some choices...
Approached some situations with a little more caution...
Not reacted so hastily...
or...
Moved much more swiftly..decisively...
Relaxed your grip a bit...
Breathed more deeply...
Trusted...
or..

Not Trusted.


Survival is not a pretty thing...in the end.
It usually conveys an image of cuts..bruises..bumps...broken bones...
Collisions.
Avalanches.
Shipwrecks.

The survivors are not usually candidates for a beauty pageant.

While survivors maintain a tenuous hold on their life...
Still breathing..heart still pumping...blood coursing through veins...synapses firing...
No one wants to live in survival mode forever...

It is not enough to survive.

The world is full of survivors.
Of war.
Abuse.
Rape.
Accidents.
Theft.
Financial ruin.
Divorce.
Marriage.
Drugs.
Alcohol.
Ignorance.

The past cannot be changed.
Surviving only identifies with the past.
What cannot be changed.
What was.

Today..I is.

I am.

What is...

Occurring now..in the moment...the present...is fleeting.

Today...is a series of moments..some already passed...the now...and what is yet to be.

The last day of the year... is reflective for most people in our western culture.

We haul out our measuring sticks and compare/contrast...pontificate..extrapolate...analyze..assess... predict.

We tell our stories..interpret our past...predict our futures...and some will anesthetize
the present with copious amounts of alcohol or their drug of choice...in the yearly ritual of closing the door on the old and opening another on the new.

I for one..although intellectually I know that only a second separates one year from the last...will be glad to symbolically close the door on 2008.

I haven't lived in a war torn country.
Lived through a natural disaster...
OR anything remotely like what millions are suffering around the world.

My measuring stick is not being used against anyone else besides myself this year.

If I am wise...I will acknowledge that what was...is over...what is...is a result of what was...
and what will be...is another realm entirely.

I am not alone.
The one who loves me entirely has not abandoned me to my choices.
He has not left me to wallow in the results.
He rescues.
He saves.
He heals.
He restores.
He goes before and comes in behind.
He uproots.
He prunes.
He waters.
He feeds.
He tends.

He desires more than survival.

He wants me to thrive.
He CAUSES me to thrive.

He is not limited or constrained by time.

It is all swallowed up in him..undefinable.

He is OTHER than.

He makes me...something more...or

He makes me exactly what is...in his mind....

Who I truly am.

More than anything this year...I want to Thrive...
And I know that takes...surrender.

Time is passing... not years...

Moments.
Unrecoverable.

Yet eternity is placed in the hearts of man.

What was.... simply was...

What is.. is fleeting...

What will be....now that is something...to look forward to....

Something to surrender to... trusting the One..who holds it all together.