Thanks!giving

Tis the season to be Thankful!

For some odd reason I was thinking about last year. I’m usually present-future, focused on where we’re going, what God has spoken, etc. etc. But something caused me to think about how much my life with God has changed since last year. To be honest, I was stunned. There are some big things that happened, to be sure. But just overall, where I am now compared to where I was a year ago, six months ago, at the end of summer is amazing.

When is the last time you stopped to look at the before and after pictures? Not of your circumstances, those are fleeting. How much has your identity in Christ grown? How much has your understanding or comfort level with that identity grown? What aspects of God do you know more intimately than you knew a year ago? How have you responded to challenges in new ways?

I’ll give you a concrete example of the last point. After 13 years of teaching college in the traditional way, I’m now developing online courses. At first I was panicked, because the classroom strategies weren’t going to fit in the box very well. But then suddenly (sounds like the Holy Spirit showed up, eh?) I started thinking about how we always run out of time with the traditional lecture method and all the wonderful internet resources that would augment students’ learning experience. And now I’m all excited about new strategies for teaching and learning.

I’m doing something similar with life as a whole. I’m asking, “What doesn’t fit in the box very well and what could you do if you looked at it from a different framework?” Honestly, I don’t have all the answers yet. But the questions are on the table and Holy Spirit has a way of dropping off answers in interesting ways.

I hope you have some time as we enter the holidays to think about how different you have become. If you have even five minutes more than that, I’d love to hear from you.

Blessings,
Lori