from The Conservative Treehouse:
2024 has been one heck of a ride. I mean, wow.
This is the year when so many assumptions collapsed because we did not pretend. I will have other thoughts on the year later, even some predictions that might seem a little “out there”. Then again, I’m not exactly known for following the herd safety formula.
However, as the eve winds down, and as we are given to considering everything that has taken place, a revisit to the spiritual core of our association is appropriate.
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For me, this year provided many memorable gifts; almost all were driven by a purposeful God reminding me to keep poking my head into the human mechanics of common presumptions. Nothing is more empowering than listening to His message, being completely lost yet jumping on faith, and then finding out the wow; why it was necessary to put prayer in front of fear.
Yup, we are about to walk into entirely new challenges. Perhaps we are not prepared, perhaps we will all test our faith, perhaps we will discover new limits to our exhaustion, perhaps we will discover we are much stronger than we realize. One of the reasons for my optimism is that I think the latter is assured.
I believe we are stronger than we give ourselves credit for. I believe YOU are stronger, more purposeful, smarter, more strategic, more influential, more necessary and far more loved than you can ever imagine.
Yes, I am optimistic, much more so today on the last day of 2024 than I was on the first day. The knowledge we possess is powerful – far more powerful than the pretenses we fight against. Our ranks have grown, and we won a historic election.
Regardless of how we exit this year, excited or slightly nervous, we admit it can be challenging to retain a joyful ‘best life’ while everything around us is so unpredictable and a little unnerving.
However, if we accept that a loving God is the source of the purest truth, we can create something stronger within ourselves just by making a choice. Do that, choose that, follow that and we will have accomplished a great deal.
Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we always have choices. A new year’s perspective:
I have long felt that life is like a series of links in a chain. You might be driving down the road and you hear a song on the radio, or see a picture, and you feel a memory….
Something triggers within you that reminds of a different time and place than where you are right now.
You reflect.
The memories you consider remind you of a totally different time in your life.
Perhaps you lived in a different place. Perhaps you were surrounded by different people. Perhaps a different job or completely different friends. You recognize those memories were constructed like frozen moments in time. They became individual links in the chain in your life.
We never actually realize, in the immediate moment, when one link closes and another link begins. But when we look back, we can clearly see distinct points where things changed, the link closed, and a new link began.
You see, the links are only visible in reflection.
As we reflect, we find parts of the chain in our life where each link closes and connects with the other. A beginning, and an end. At the point where the links are joined, we carry parts of the previous link forward to the next.
For many people those connections are bonded by family, or very strong lifelong relationships. Connections which continue beyond our geographic moments, jobs or temporary acquaintances.
But for everyone, the primary bonding agent brought forward from one link to the next is us, our center, our values and core principles. Our beliefs.
The strength of the steel which comprises the links of our life is forged in the fire of adversity, weakness, challenge, pain, loss, and painful growth. The steel is then cooled with the tears of triumph, hurdles overcome and resolve.
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