Life seems to have a funny way of showing me what’s next.
Last year, God showed me to focus on contentment. We did some of the simplest things in life. We went camping. A lot. I am not tired of it though, so that says something. Simplicity can be bliss. I also spent way less on myself and really thought about purchases before buying them. It was hard to get into that habit. And it had me going back to return things I realized I didn’t need or had found something similar in my closets.
It was December 31st before I realized He had already had a topic in mind for me this year.
On November 10th I received a message from a dear friend. She was sick. Really sick. She had lymphoma. Almost immediately God reminded me of something He had told me months before. I don’t hear His voice that audibly that often. Honestly, I pray and trust He leads me with His still small voice and just that feeling you get when you are going right and the wrong feeling you get when you are going wrong, you know? So this was different. God told me, ” Someone you know very well is going to go through cancer. You need to be there.” Frankly, this was not the friend I thought. Nor was it the message I wanted to hear from God. At that time, I thought “forget it devil, you aren’t doing this.” My conversation with whom I realized was really God speaking to me went back and forth like this until I realized the key word.
Through.
So on the last day of December I was thinking back upon this, and realized something.
My perspective had shifted.
I’ve always felt I had pretty good perspective. I’ve been around the world on missions. I’d seen a lot of heartbreak and humbleness and joy and love. But it has been a few years since I’d been in the middle of that.
Then I realized, I’d let go of a certain perspective He wants our heart to beat to.
People.
I had my people in view. I’d had those around me under my eye in my thoughts and prayers. Those people I see weekly and daily.
My friend and I see each other often. We’d gotten together in the late, lazy days of summer. But it had been two months since we’d just hung out as families. We’d been meaning to get together one Saturday. It just hadn’t worked out yet. We hadn’t given up. However, this changed so much.
This good friend of mine who messaged me that night, too sad and heartbroken to get through that conversation on the phone, saved my perspective.
These photos aren’t always our perspective, nor do they represent what it always is-sunshine and flowers. However, it can be. You sometimes just have to look over the mountain or through the trees to see.
It’s a choice. And it’s one I’m working hard to make.
