Happy Holidays
Well the holidays are almost over as we approach new years eve. I trust many of you have taken the time to look at your year this past year and consider all the events and things it has given you. If you are like me, you will have buckets of extremely wonderful things and buckets of awful things, but if you are reading this, then like me you have survived!
I think it is a wonderful thing to not only survive, but to learn and grow. Each of us face many challenges with our lives, some are momentarily cripling, some are life cripling and some are life ending. Perspective is a wonderful thing in the midst of all of it. I have come to discover that the only life ending event is truly death! For those of you who have lost loved ones and friends this past year, I offer my condolences.
When I think of all other life events, I am reminded two stories, one from the movie Lethal Weapon and the other, the story of Jacob of Jacob in the Bible. The scene in Lethal Weapon, Mel Gibson is compare scares he received to another mans and considering them as badges of honor for their duty as policmen. In the Bible story of Jacob, Jacob was a man who often avoided trouble by running or coniving. Then one night he entered a wrestling match with the angel of the Lord, and during that wrestling match, Jacob pinned the angel and the angel touched him on his thigh. The angel touched him, and he walked with a limp the rest of his life. The limp was as a permanent reminder of his encounter with God. At one point, God renamed Jacob. He was no longer Jacob, for God changed His name to Israel, which means ‘prince with God.’
I enourage you to look on your challenges as encounters with God, what is He trying to do in your life today. Where is He changing your name? How is He changing your walk?
