Reflecting on a Realization

I had the privilege of spending about 10 days over Christmas in Ketchikan, Alaska (more on that in future posts), and at the Sunday night service at Gateway Baptist Church, I had a realization about 2015.

It happened like this:  Pastor John asked us to share something about our year, some positive reflections, and as I listened to other stories I suddenly realized that my year was indeed a good one. I hadn’t thought about it being a bad year; I hadn’t really thought about it at all in fact, until that moment. Then my Aunt Becky said she was thankful that I had been able to visit and it hit me – all of the trials and difficult changes and uncertainty I faced last year made it possible for me to take that trip.

It was largely a financial issue - I took a leave of absence from my job, in January, to complete my student teaching, which meant I received a paycheck at the end of January, and some financial aid in February, and then almost nothing came in until the end of September. I lived on almost $0 for that last month, but I made it; God always provided a way and a means, sometimes at the last minute, or in a very unexpected way. Having given up my apartment, and with it the need to pay the amount of rent I owed for four years, I no longer had to pay out the same amount, so when I started getting paychecks again I had a little more money, and I was able to purchase a ticket on my own. That along with the tremendous growth over the past few years, aided greatly by taking Adderall, I was able to travel and visit with very little anxiety, and actually enjoyed myself most of the time I was there, which is something I can’t usually say when on a trip.


I hope I can remember this realization the next time a trial comes up, or I enter a season of difficulty in some way; I also hope it doesn’t take me a whole year to be able to sit back and reflect on the many ways God blesses me and the varied means He uses to do it.