Looking to 2024

 2023 is quickly winding down. A week from now we start another new year. Filled with hopes, aspirations, possibilities and opportunities. None of us knows what the future holds. Christians can approach the coming new year with confidence because we know who holds the future. 

I am a dreamer. Always have been. Back to childhood. I could stare out the windows in the classroom hours on end lost in my thoughts and dreams. I would often lay on our picnic table in the backyard looking up to the sky lost in the labyrinth of dreams. My dreams distracted me in the classroom. They filled my head in the bedroom. In those quiet moments of reflection, I dreamed. I dreamed through reading books. That is what dreamers do. They dream about the future. 

I am 57 now. That does not mean that I have quit dreaming. Only now, I've traded in my selfish dreams in exchange for God's dreams. What God wills and desires is my focus. I seek Him and wait for His revelation of what He wants done. I wait for His calling and direction. It does not matter if those dreams are outlandish, audacious, impossible, improbable, risky, daunting, or uncomfortable. 

By faith I go after God's dreams with reckless abandon. I pray. I labor. I sacrifice. I serve. I wait with expectation that God will make His dreams come true. 

Pursuing God's dreams have taken me on a wild ride. On an adventure far beyond anything I could ever have hoped for on my own. Doors have both opened and shut. Opportunities have come and gone. There have been both risks and rewards. There have also been triumphant victories as well as soul crushing defeats. 

As I contemplate 2024, one-word creeps into my cranium. CHANGE. There will be change in 2024. Changes in technology. Change in our workplaces. Change in relationships. Some people will drift out of our lives and new people will enter. Our health might change for the better or for the worse. Our walks with God will change. Some will get closer to God and others might drift further from Him.  Some will change addresses. Some will find new employment opportunities. Some will face change in the form of challenges. Some will embrace change through solutions to difficult problems. 

2024 is a blank canvas waiting to be colored. A book of empty pages waiting to be written. An ocean voyage waiting to begin. I try to peek ahead but cannot see around the bend. I cannot see what will happen today much less what will happen a week, a month, or a year from now. 

The hard challenge for each of us is to seek God, and at the same time, to be content to follow Him one day at a time. No matter where He leads. No matter what sacrifices He requires, no matter what obstacles have to be overcome and no matter what changes He requires. 

Ps 119:105 reminds us that His word is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path. Just enough light to see a few steps in front of us. Just enough light most days for that day. I am guilty of always trying to peek ahead. To get a sneak peak of the future. No matter what changes come in 2024 all I need to do is to follow God one day at a time. To do what He calls me to do for this day. The truth is all any of has is one day. The day we are living in. 2023 is in our rear-view mirror. We cannot do or undo any of the past. We cannot live in 2024 because we are not there yet. What we have is today. 

The challenge is to live in each moment in 2024. To walk forward when God instructs us to do so. To pause when He counsels us to wait on Him. To forge ahead when He commands us to attack enemy forces. To slow down long enough to enjoy the people we serve with and appreciate their contributions. When He calls us to leap in faith we are to promptly obey. When we fall and He calls us get up and try again, we must rise to our feet, dust ourselves off, and give it another go. 

I don't know anything that will happen in 2024 except change. It will not be the same as in 2023. I look back over the last year at all the changes. We survived one of the hottest summers I can ever remember along with severe drought. God led me away from one opportunity in coaching and opened the door for a new opportunity. Many beloved people from our flock either died or relocated to other cities in the past year. I met many new people who have greatly enriched my life. There have been challenges we have watched God overcome. 

We have no clue what lies ahead. God has surprising twists, turns, and terrain to traverse. If change awaits us in 2024, then may we meet each change with faith. Faith for every change. Some changes will be inconsequential. Others will have massive implications. God rules over both. We are to trust Him. To abide in Him. We are challenged to live each day of 2024 surrendered to Him. No matter where He leads, what He leads us to do, or when He leads us to do it. 

We may not be able to see what is ahead. That is okay. If we keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfector of our faith, we can endure whatever comes our way in 2024. Even if it means seasons of sufferings over bouts of blessings. I look forward to the future. I think change will lead to some adventures. It may not all be easy pilgriming, but I do believe it will be fulfilling. Whatever God dreams let us dream with Him. Before the first day of 2024 dawns may we surrender to His dreams and to His call. Following closely one day at a time. The adventure of 2024 awaits. Get ready, get set, just a few more days and we turn over the blank page of 2024. May God write an amazing story for each of us.