For many, this time of year is a time to look forward, to set new goals, to dream new dreams.
But, this year, I find myself looking back. Not because I don’t have any goals or dreams for this year, I do. But because I think I would be remiss if I didn’t look back and both grieve and celebrate what God has done.
Hindsight is 20/20, I know that full well. Someone recently asked me if I could go back 7, 8, 9 years ago and tell myself anything what I’d say. I didn’t have an answer at the time. But I do now.
I wouldn’t say anything. No speeches, no lessons, no words of wisdom. She probably wouldn’t have listened, and even if she did the life she would have missed and the wisdom she would have never earned were worth the price paid. God doesn’t often spare us the process, and He certainly didn’t spare her of it. But He stayed through it. He refined through it. He carried her through what she could have never seen ahead of time.
If she saw me today she wouldn’t even recognize me. The calm. The compassion. The resilience. The courage. The stubborn joy. The grit.
As I step into this new year, I don’t do so with resolutions built on striving, but with trust shaped by remembering. I have lived the questions, sat in the ashes, and discovered that His presence was never absent, even when His purposes were hidden. God did not rush the process or soften the cost, but He was faithful in both the breaking and the positioning. So I move forward aware that I am both carried and called; held by a faithful God, positioned not accidentally, for the work ahead. And willing to stand where I’ve been placed.
Centered Path Equine 