The Year-Ago Me

Tonight, the pavement underneath bare feet is still warm from the sun even though the stars are out. Sweet little fireflies flicker through the trees and the air is so heavy with humidity it feels like a soggy towel. Summer has hit full wave with temperatures edging close to triple digits and I can't help but peer back into the "me" of a year ago.

It is crazy how much can change in such a short amount of time. It is crazy how much doesn't change.

The year-ago me was learning about prayer. Prayer is about an undeserving child pouring out an empty heart to a Father God who, with one drop of heavenly power, can heal the sick, blind, and broken.

A year ago, I was discovering that my plans will never, ever outshine God's. I can make my own way, I can choose what, when, who, or how I want...and it may even appear to "work out" but it cannot be any better than what the Saviour has in store.

A year ago I was standing at the beginning of summer looking into my last year of college. I would lay on the cracked driveway and listen to the stoplight change and wonder what my life would bring.

The today me is still learning about prayer. Day in and day out I am reminded of how far I have to come in my prayer life and how easy it is to forget the incredible power of conversing with the Almighty.

Today I can only smile at how different plans can be. I now know that God makes His way much clearer than I ever gave Him credit for. I know that He works in mysterious ways and I can only eagerly wait for Him to continue working in the manner He does!

The Beth of today is still looking out at the rest of my life and I still wonder what the Lord has in store. I do know, though, that God is so so good and that He has worked on me and in me throughout the past year. I pray that my life only increases in His glory and decreases in mine.

"God never made a promise that was too good to be true." - Dwight L. Moody

Assistance

 May flickered passed like a pebble across a pond.

Graduation from college on May 18 left me closing one chapter and opening another. It feels good to be finished with the schooling aspect of these past years though I know the learning process is far from over.

Speaking of learning, isn't it amazing how you know something in the back of your mind but it hits like a brand new fresh revelation sometimes?

Realization: God does not need your help.

Sure, He gave you an opinion but not to interject against His. He gave you the ability to work and serve Him but not to earn or merit His favor. You can plan out your next step in life and the next few steps to follow but He can see the timeline of life start to finish. His ways are far higher, far better, and far more capable of seeing things through.

The Almighty does not need assistance with being the Almighty.

More and more He has been teaching me to let go of me and let Him do what He does best. He has opened doors and put together things that I could not have orchestrated myself. He has flooded my life with blessings and good and none of it was based on me but all on Him and that's exactly as it should be.

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding."
Isaiah 40:28

                                               

"God’s lead­er­ship is the one sig­nif­i­cant fact in hu­man ex­per­i­ence, that it makes no dif­fer­ence how we are led, or whi­ther we are led, so long as we are sure God is lead­ing us. " - Joseph Gilmore