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The one to close out 2013

An end-of-year tradition of mine for the last 9 years or so has been to read through my journals from the year that is coming to a close. And what starts off as just reading one year turns into reading back through multiple years of journal entries. It's one of my favorite days of the year. I love reading all that has happened and being able to see the growth and change that I've encountered. This is another reason I am so grateful my journals survived the fire of 2012.

A couple of weeks before the fire, I'd written in my journal: I will look back on this year (2012) as the year that God overwhelmed me. And even after the fire- I felt that was true. Completely overwhelmed. In a good way. The outpouring of people's generosity after the fire sealed the deal. What an overwhelming year. With work, with relationships, with family, with kindness. An overwhelming year.

Wrapping up 2013, I'd say this has been a year of great loss. While the fire may have happened in 2012, I felt it in 2013. I experienced ALL YEAR LONG the pain/frustration/sadness of things I lost in the fire. I moved to a new city and experienced the loss of friendships I'd just made in Tallahassee. I moved to a new city and experienced the loss of relationships with dear coworkers that I loved seeing on a day to day basis. I put some dreams to rest in 2013 and have felt the ache and loss of letting go of things I've had with me since I was a little girl.

Then halfway through the year when I thought the weight of loss was unbearable, I got a phone call telling me that a car accident had taken the life of a dear friend and old roommate. I experienced loss on a completely different level at that point. Breathing was hard. Waking up was hard.

2013 was a hard year. And I'm thinking I wasn't the only one who had a hard year. I'm not sure what you've lost this last year. But I know a promise was made that beauty will come from ashes; A promise was made that God will make a way in the wilderness. That He will make streams in the wasteland.

If 2013 was a year of desert and wasteland for you- I'm believing with you and for you that streams will be abundant in 2014. That new life will come. That beauty will arise from your ashes.

If I know anything- I know my Jesus is good at keeping His promises. Let's watch Him make good on those promises in 2014.

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