Confession 264: God Was Here

 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. 

Matthew 5:16

New Year--I love the sound of that, don't you?  A New Year...365 days stretching out before us....blank open spaces waiting to be filled.  New Year is a time for possibility.  New Year is a time for dreams.  New Year brings hope--hope for new directions, hope for positive changes, hope that we can live into the person we so desire to be.  New Year....

When I think about what I hope to accomplish in this New Year, there are some very definitive goals that I have in mind.  However, I often find that God has a way of rearranging the goals that I make.  As my family and I were watching the New Year's Eve festivities on TV, there was a countdown of the top musical performances of 2012.  One of the performances was a song sung by Beyonce at a UN function.  The song was titled, "I Was Here".  I'm including a link to the performance if you'd like to see it.  It was very moving.

As I watched the performance, I found myself thinking, this is what I want to do in my life.  I want to live my life in a way that people know I was here.  As I pondered on that the next couple of days, however, I found myself thinking beyond I was here.  As I look around our messy, broken, hurting world the thing that I really want to do is to live in a way that shows not that I was here, but that God IS here!!

This New Year, I want to bring hope to those who are hopeless, but not from me, from the One who restores all hope.  This New Year, I want to show love to others--not my frail, wavering, dependent love, but the Love that came into the world to Redeem.  This New Year, I want to focus on letting God's light shine through me--through my work and my relationships and my activities and my words.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter much that I was here, but rather, that I allowed God to be here through me.  I'm excited about the possibilities of this New Year.  I'm excited to see where God may lead.  But most of all, I am grateful that God is willing to let me go with Him.

Blessings and Peace,
Sara