Things I've Learned in 2019

Between the life-changing joy that was the birth of my second daughter, and the accomplishing items on my bucket list (Paris, Cedar Point, run a marathon), there were some of the darkest moments ever. 2019 was a year for the books. This list of the things I have learned this year is far from comprehensive, but will have to do.

* You will also find Oswald Chambers quotes from, “My Utmost for His Highest.” My all-time favorite devotional that I worked through this year.

“We shall be scattered into inner desolations and made to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is not that we choose it, but that God engineers our circumstances so that we are brought there… When once we get there, we can praise God- That is faith being worked out.”

— April 4th

1. Community is not built in a day. I’ve heard it said that you don’t know what you have until it is gone. In a similar sentiment, you do not know the community you have until tragedy strikes. Ashley and I have been in Mulberry for seven (7) years, and it was not until our housing crisis that we really understood what an amazing community of people we have. Building these friendships and relationships has taken time, and boy has it been worth it.

2. Community doesn’t come with an age group, but with people choosing to be intentional with each other. Another note on community, it’s not about age or gender or likes or dislikes. It is about intentionality. Community can be built with anyone, anywhere.

“Any strand of our own energy will blur the life of Jesus. We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. ”

— April 12th

3. To trust God is to surrender the ideal result. It’s the bold decision to have confidence in Him no matter the outcome.

4. In life there is sometimes no testimony to give, but we can always testify about the character of God. God never fails. God never changes. Circumstances do both.

“I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there. Some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God’s character.”

— May 19th

5. Sustaining is harder than building. God has asked me to sustain what was built this year. I find that both building and sustaining are important, but more often than not, God asks us to sustain. God asks us to stand. To stay. To remain. Building is hard and beautiful and fun and exhilarating. It’s wonderful to be apart of something new. Sustaining is keeping the promise of God alive in the mundane, walking with God in the everyday. I need all of His strength to walk and not grow faint.

6. “Difficulty can bring distraction.” - Oswald Chambers.

“It is only by going through the confusion that you will get at what God wants. You will think He is an unkind friend, but remember He is not; the time will come when everything will be explained.”

— September 12th

7. You don’t know you have an authority (submitting to leadership) problem until you are serving under bad authority (leadership). It is easy to go along with a wonderful authority figure who is growing, learning, serving, listening, and encouraging. You know, someone who has outstanding character and is the model for good leadership. What is hard is serving under bad leadership. How will I respond to the self-serving, insecure bully? Here is the test. I am to serve with as much grace and patience as I would the ideal leader.

“We never realize at the time what God is putting us through; we go through it more or less misunderstandingly; then we come to a luminous place, and say- ‘Why, God has girded me, though I did not know it!’”

— November 5th