The peppermint bark, Christmas lights, evergreen, and giving season at hand makes even the coldest grinch melt at times.
I am sure most can look back on 2018 and feel that maybe it was good and yes, there were hard times as well, and maybe even bad times, but isn't that how life is?
Good times, bad times hard times, but real times. Times that take your breath away and times that make you want to hold your breath = LIFE
As we all look forward to things, right now we look forward, and are hopeful that the light of 2019 will bring good things... even great things.
What are you looking forward to? Hopeful about? What is it in 2019 that you want to happen?
I want to challenge you not to live your life in hoping for a better day. Well hope is good, but try and live in the present, the here and now.
We just had a huge family gathering and brought in the New Year with love all around. Instead of just sitting with it, visiting and soaking it all in, I found myself on my feet, serving, doing, being busy.
Now, this morning, I sit here and wish I had been more present. I wish I had asked that great niece about herself, her school. I could have taken more pictures, got more hugs, but I didn't and I don't sit here necessarily in regret, but just wishing there was more time, that I had one more day with my family.... but life goes on and the real world waits for our commitments to be fulfilled and the grind of it all will begin again.
So I want to challenge you in 2019, to live in the present. That whatever light 2019 brings- whether it's a bright light on a hill or light from a crack in the door, that you make the most of it.
Yes, there will be times that take your breath away and times that make you want to hold your breath.
But overall, my prayer for you is a good year, a year filled with light. Light you absorb from others and light that you emit to others. I pray that you, most of all- get to experience the Light of the World. The light and hope and presence of Jesus Christ, the one true hope and reason to live, love and experience this present world.
