As I thought of my blog and
writing goals for 2014, I had to look at how this year began. In the
first 6 days of 2014 I have spent time with wonderful, single friends from
church; spent time with friends (married and single) just because we wanted to;
shared some fun moments and encouraging moments with friends at work (can
someone say “giant candy bar”); spent the night and caught up with an old
friend from NarroWay Productions; saw my best friend's daughter (my Emma) get
married; saw friends from college (from 30 years ago); saw almost everyone I
knew from when I was a resort missionary in Florida (Driggers and Wagler
families included); talked to my supervisor from Florida (from over 20 years
ago) and talked to one of my dear friend’s daughters who called to tell me that
her mother had unexpectedly passed away. It is like my life has passed before my eyes in the first week of
2014. It was both wonderful
and painful all at the same time. I felt like George Bailey. I got my own look at my life. People telling me they love me and how much they missed me and let’s not
let another 20 years pass before we see each other again and some told me what a
difference I made in their life. The truth is; they have made much MORE difference in
mine.
Like many
people, I chose a ONE WORD this year. The word that kept coming up in my
mind and in my devotions and in my devotional emails and on-line communities
has been MORE. I know that is usually not a “Christian”
friendly word. It almost seems selfish,
but it is the “word” God lead me too.
And MORE can mean so many
things. I’m not the girl that looks at
the class ½ full or ½ empty. I look at
it as a spill waiting to happen. So I
when I chose MORE, I did so with
fear and trembling. What if MORE means more loss, more heartache,
more conflict, more illness, more questions, more doubt….MORE of anything that I did not want to happen. But I chose it none the less.
I decided that I
would strive to have MORE of Christ, MORE love, MORE blessing, MORE ministry, MORE serving, MORE joy, MORE praise, MORE of trusting
God, MORE giving, MORE receiving, MORE laughter
and MORE of God.
I have lived so
much of the last seven years in LESS. Less of life! I have worried over food and housing and
income and clothes and ministry and so many things. Some of the
less, I had no control of; some of it was all me. So I stepped out
on faith for MORE, mainly MORE
of Christ and getting closer to God. 2014 has had MORE of everything. All the things I feared and all the things I
hoped for. Life has just been MORE.
And I have learned that my life has been MORE than I
had realized. “Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to immeasurably MORE than
all we ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us.” God really does MORE for me, because he knows what is best, even when it doesn't feel that way. My heart’s desire is not to get more from Him, but to be MORE for Him.
