[Image via Shiri Heyman from Pinterest]
It's the end of the year and so many things have happened during the course of this year. So many things just like the many different people who are reading this right now. You're reading this right now and really I can't just categorise what has happened in your life this year. Because, a variety of the good and bad (in different proportion) has happened in each of our lives if we really want to be honest during this year. And really no matter what might have happened, I bet you if you are reading this, God has done something this year in your life that if you tell us the story about it would make our ears stand on end.
Let me tell you a bit of mine
My Story
For me, this year started really good, I mean great. I finished my service year, got a job almost immediately, got a place of my own, the ministry I was a part of in my local church was thriving, I got to volunteer at a youth camp, where i had the chance to pour into the lives of others and where i myself was totally refreshed. I mean I was living a part of my dream. Then like the unimaginable happened, to cut the long story short, sometime in August I like lost three quarters of everything I ever owned to a flood and that just totally rocked my world. I fell into a state of depression that wasn't my own and I knew it cause I'm like this very upbeat kind of person. But it was season of reassurance, it was a season God showed himself strong that he was for me and not against me. Seriously I felt God closer in those moments it seemed I lost everything. It was like He came and said to me : Ayo I am your everything, you didn't lose me. And gradually there was a restoration. Gradually, there was a restoration not just of things lost in the flood but of things lost in the unseen flood of the soul.
Fast forward
Towards the end of this year, I was already packing my bags on leaving the year. Closing the door on all things good to happen, maybe cause I thought it was already the later part of December. But God suprised me. He sent answers to prayers I already gave up on my way. He sent answers to plans I was in fact considering for the year ahead. Like I was totally surprised with joy and favour. You would surely hear more about this next year though pardon me some might be a bit too personal to share.
But why am I saying this? Why am going through the details of sharing my own personal story. It's not to show what I have accomplished cause seriously the things that happened as the year was running to an end, I didn't have a single thing to contribute to their happenings. God totally surprised me. Like i was shocked by these miracles. But why I'm saying these is to encourage you. To remind you that only if you too could look carefully at this year, you would find a story God must be telling through your life that someone would find encouraging. And not to sound absurd, we might all not be at the same points in our personal stories. There might be tragedy ( I'm not necessarily saying that's God's doing cause there's an enemy) but it's just a part of the narrative. Wherever you might be right now as this year runs to an end, and you are a Christian, one thing I want you know is that no matter what happened, God is writing a good, great and superb story with your life. And it's time we started telling our stories. Somehow when we tell our stories, we see the beautiful and bright endings God has for us from the dark middle we might be. And that brings faith to our spirit, hope to our souls and love to the world around us.
My Life Now
6 days back I wrote a note about how it's so possible that God can accomplish the greatest things ever this year for us even in the remaining 6 days. May I let you know that I have suffered like the biggest heart break this year since then (oh what an irony. lOl) and also it would interest you too that in these 6 days I have seen like my greatest surprises that left my mouth opened and amazed with joy even this year. Okay God can do and if I didn't learn anything this year, I sure learnt that in our moments of greatest heartache and deepest gloom, if we just hold on to the promise God's given us, we would see the beautiful dawn and I tell you it would leave our mouths wide open.
For You
You might have packed your bags and discarded this year and the stories that came with it but may I suggest to you, they might be the very springboard the miracle of the year to come might bounce from. I beseech you, TELL YOUR STORY! It is your miracle in words, it is your beautiful future in conversation form and no one can tell it better than you. It's God's story graced towards you. I'd say you start right now before you leave this year behind.
What was your story like this year, I would love to hear from you. :)
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