2010.....God's at work again.

The season is changing, we have set our clocks back one hour to gain some extra sleep but if your like me, you stayed up an extra hour or more knowing you would "get it back" somehow. The temperature is getting cooler for most and the stores are filling up with the "spirit" of the holidays. (though they started in July!!) What does all of this mean? The end of the year is approaching and soon we will close our eyes on 2009 and wake up in 2010, God say the same. What does all that mean?



Spending years in the church and eventually changing my method of celebration bringing in the New Years from the clubs and various other spots to the church house, I have become familiar with the traditional, coined phrases Pastor's use to motivate the congregation going in to a New Year. I sit back and laugh at some of the stuff we come up with and how it all seems to be "right on time." I remember 1994...I'm gettin more. Or 1999, the year I get mine. 2003, God's blessings for me and 2006 simply titled, "this is it." So many more and I am sure the titles change with the various church's but none the less, we have all heard it at some point. As we gear up in those previous years and get all excited because it is was 2009, my year to shine and about 3 months in, reality hit hard and you wondered if God was even listening to you anymore. Some of us lost family, friends, jobs, homes, and we all know what the market did to our money. Or for others, 2008 didn't end so "great" so it blurred your vision going in to the new year and never seemed to look up. Oh sure there were moments of clear skies but the clouds seemed to quickly re-group and rain on your parade. For some, the years have proven to be that blessing they shouted about as they closed out the previous year. For those, they have pulled in a harvest and celebrated the blessings and have received what God had for them in that year. I know for me, for a few years, man...I felt like God forgot about me. I had different titles for the different years as they approached and it seemed my titles fit great. I went through my season(s) of struggle and endured some tremendous hardships. One season, 2005...was the year I fell so far behind. I had many other "names" for it but this is the cleanest one. As I went through those times, I was shut down by all that was going on around me and it wasn't until 2006 that I was able to receive a title that God gave to me for the year. It was not a title that a Pastor used or one that I created, God provided this one. The thing I love about God is He will keep it simple when we need it simple and He did so at that time. As the new year approached, He let me know that in 2006, I was "fixed." The year started out rough of course but it was due to the new legs I had to walk this walk and the new mind I had been provided to think through situations like He wanted me to. The new arms and hands to carry the load for my children and others the way God intended, and the new heart I had to get used to with the clear vision. 2006, I am fixed. Mid-way through the year I was concerned because nothing major happened and I didn't know if I was doing something wrong and was missing what God was trying to do but God came strong and told me to move church's and settle where He wanted me. I did right before the holidays and with my mind focused on what God was doing and nothing else I worked in my ministry and as I was doing all God had me to do, He brought me my wife, led my brother to Christ, put me in a new job, and restored my life to a better place then I was before. 2006, I am fixed. I was no longer struggling with my past. I no longer felt the pain of my errors but the joy of what God was doing. I didn't look for a title from any one else, God provided it for me through my testimony. I have never looked back and though seasons come and go, they are much different now because even when they get hard and most would give up, including myself...before, I am reminded that "I am fixed." See, once God gives you a title, He never takes it back and never changes His mind on it, it just is what it is and no one can change that. I am forever fixed and I have been restored. So in those season of hardships, I know that God is doing a work and I look for the lesson and wait on God's hand of Grace to pull me out.

As 2009 comes to an end and 2010 approaches, what is God saying to you? What title has He given to you to claim this year? Have you asked? Are you listening? For me, 2010 is simply titled, "again and again" and to me that means that God's blessings are still flowing and even when the storms come, the blessing is the joy I have in the midst and the growth I have in the end. Seek God for your title, don't get caught up on what others say it "should be" because that may not be where God has you at this moment and you don't want to miss out what God is doing in you. It may be a tough season ahead and you may already be in it. Just know that God has not forgotten about you at all, He is doing a great work in your right now. As the season progresses, look for the joy and hold on to it. The hardships will not last forever and when it is over, your life will never be the same and you will be better for it all. God doesn't bring you through storms to make you worse off then you were. Rain has never killed life on earth, it restores it, grows it, and provides life for others through it. Get you title.....get it from God!!