Changing Your Strategy
A yellow sun burns through the days
burns through the scribbled notebook
the pages filled with thoughts
unfolding, laid down
sprawled across the silky white
in black liquid.
Red dawn, silver moon, starry sky
days, moments, blended
365
and here we are
diving into the new
into the fresh water
with our breaths held,
our hopeful hearts.
It’s 2020! It’s crazy to believe we are entering a new decade. For many, the year has been filled with tumultuous emotions- anger, joy, pain, tears, laughter, love, the mundane, the exciting, etc. For me, the year has held a collection of days filled with journal entries, lots of writing, wet dog kisses, new house remodeling projects, and marriage, the latter being my favorite part. A new year usually invites the challenge of setting new goals, starting new projects, creating resolutions, and the will to see them all through (and not just give up after the first week of January). There’s something about the new year that gives the illusion of a second chance, of shining new-ness to cling to (new me, new goals, new dreams, etc.), but I think in all honesty that any day is the perfect day to start over. If you enter the year with the same mindset and same patterns that didn’t work out for you previously, is it not expectant that you would gain the same results? A new year won’t change anything if you are still actively choosing to stick to bad habits and old ways.
That being said, I am guilty of doing this. We all are. It’s in our human nature to be flawed, to make plans and give in to our feelings over our word/goals/resolutions. That is why we can’t depend on ourselves or our flawed nature, but depend on the One who never fails, the One who is our rock, the One who opens the door when we knock (Matthew 7:7). Jesus is the King of new. He literally came to the world because the old ways weren’t working. In the same way, you can’t fight new battles with old strategies. You need to change your strategy, you’ve got to set your trust, your hope, and your heart upon the Lord.
Isaiah 43:19 says, “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” In the middle of your struggle, your anxiety, your pain, your bad habits, your troubles, God will make a path for you. He won’t leave you there in the wilderness. When you abide in Him, when you choose to lay your struggles at his feet and surrender, God will take back his child with delight. He will never leave you, He will never forsake you, and His love is eternal. Joel 2:12 says, ‘“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”’ Even now- even after all this time, after all you’ve done, after who you’ve been, after how you’ve strayed or rejected, even now. When I was a child, I would pray to God to never leave me, but as I grew up and began to fully grasp His unfailing love, I understood its not God that abandons us, but we who abandon him. I learned to change my prayer in times of difficulties from “Lord, please never leave me,” to “Lord, I pray you make your presence known to me.”
Sometimes, life can be overwhelming. Thoughts, situations, feelings- can all be too heavy and it’s important to remember that God is always with you, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Ask Him to make His presence known to you. Seek Him and you will find Him. In this new season, let us remember to trust God, to let Him in, to know you can only fight this battle with Him beside you. Don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big your God is! Only He can make you new, only He can give you the strength and the courage, to work on the areas in your life that you want to change. I pray that this post encourages you reader and lets you rest a little easy today. I would love to hear anyone’s similar experiences, thoughts, or emotions in the comments below!
Also, side note: I am trying out writing a poem first and then basing my blog post around the feeling/headspace that the poem was created in to inspire my writing. I am easily inspired by reading a poem, a bible verse that resonates with me, a film that moves me, etc., and am continually looking for new sources of inspiration to stimulate my creativity. It’s funny, I started this blog post with a different theme in mind based on my poem, but to my surprise, it jumped out of my hands and began a life of its own, molding into this. That’s one of my favorite things about writing. It reveals so much to you that you weren’t even aware of and more importantly, it’s a chance to connect with someone who needed to hear your words. Taking it a step further, maybe that was even the point for the source of inspiration in the first place, to reach someone who needed to read this, a divine reminder that everything is connected in His plan.
“Look, I am making everything new!”
-Revelations 21:5