How does one measure a year? In the Broadway production, and more recently the movie, "RENT" this question is asked in the song "Seasons of Love". This last weekend I had been asking the same question as how does one measure a year? This last weekend had been exactly one year since we had short sold our house we purchased a little over 4 years ago when we moved to the Seattle area. We bought in the high and sold in the low and learned a lot about the real estate market. But that is another story all together that you can ask me about some other time. For this post I wanted to mark some of the bigger things that have happened in my life and hopefully I will expand on these as the days continue. This last year, since my family and I started renting at our current residence, has been an extreme year of personal changes including:
- Receiving a new baby girl and naming her Norah, which means honor and light (another story, see our family blog at "The Anderson Clan")
- Taking a personal step to admit to my wife and others some personal issues that have brought me more into His light and out of my selfish ways. (a huge story that He is still developing in me)
- Switching from a great church to what I now know is an even greater church. Love both but it was a change I now know He was leading us to do.
- Went on my first out of country missions trip to Rancho De sus Ninos (ranch for His children) and met some wonderful people and connected even more with my Maker. Getting a totally different perspective of how selfish I am and the world is around me. We have a lot of work to do before His kingdom comes.
- Added two more couples to our bible study group and did two books to strengthen our marriages. Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas, with one of the other couples and Real Marriage, by Mark & Grace Driscole, with all four couples.
- Started reading (with my wife) Hole in the Gospel, by Richard Stearns, as a sermon series at our current church and wow.
- Started my first full year bible study using the YouVersion bible app, sorry for the plug but it's a good one. I listen to it almost every morning, which has opened my eyes so much to things I never thought of and that's huge as I consider myself a fairly deep thinker.
So with these thing I have also been enjoying helping my wife take care of our three beautiful children, tending to the new yard and all that comes with it and working at a job that has had talks of layoffs, furloughs and being overworked all at the same time. Some of these things people see as burdens but as today's verse of the day says "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Rom 8:18. So when I think of the pain of short selling my house I think of the pleasure of my new surroundings. When I sit at my job I think of the mission work and the work that He still has for me to do, here and elsewhere. When I think of my past life, I think of my children and wife and the new life I have in them with Christ. He has been so good to me this past year and you know the Bible is correct, He has not given me more than what I can handle.
How do I measure my 525,600 minutes? One moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.
"Being Confident of this (our partnership in the gospel), that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6
