Here's to a New Year - Whether It's Happy or Not

God is about the business of fulfilling His will…in His timing…in His way.

For you. For me. For the world. For His glory.

But I don’t always see it.

I mean, I do in hindsight…sometimes.

But, in the moment when I feel God is far away, or that I desperately need intervention on my behalf, I struggle to see beyond my circumstances.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19)

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29)

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27)

Behold.

I don't want to miss what God is doing. But, it is more than just seeing. I want to perceive – to take it all in, to gather understanding and meaning from what seems to be chaos – so that I can rest assured of a God who is always working to bring about the fullness of His will. A holy perception – a beholding – of the work of God in my heart, in my life, in the Church, and in the world. To perceive Him in the midst of the barren, hard places within and without. In the unexpected, disappointing, unexplainable, and nonsensical.

I don’t want to simply see the checklist of right versus wrong, I want to commune with Jesus. I don’t want to simply know the will of God for my life, I want to walk with Jesus. I don’t want to feel good about my circumstances, I want to grasp the God who is revealing Himself to my heart and to the world through every detail that is under His control. I want to attune my spiritual senses with a holy attention to God’s whispers despite all the noise.

I want to know and love this God who has first loved me. And that will require that I search for Him in all the places that I can, with all the strength that I can, in all the ways that I can. It will require that I still my physical pace and expectations in order to allow God to open my eyes, re-align my heart to His priorities for my life, and remove my expectations of how He “should” move in my life. When I am at the end of me, I want to see Him…and the less there is of me, the more there is of Him. Which means a lot…A LOT…of dying to myself, and awakening to the movement of the Spirit all around me.

More trusting. Less independence.

More letting go. Less control.

More praying. Less fixing.

More listening. Less worldly wisdom.

More flexibility. Less stubbornness.

More curiosity. Less expectations.

More discernment. Less logic.

More faith. Less tangible.

More His will. Less of my plans.

This is what beholding God will require. I am trusting it will be worth all I will have to give.

I want to behold Him…wherever He may be.

I want this for you, too. I want US to behold Him.

So, here's to the New Year - whether it's happy or not:

"Father, give us spiritual eyes to behold You, wherever You are. Amen."