Faithful

In my senior year of high school, I worked retail for a short time. It definitely was not one of my favorite jobs. I think everyone should have to work retail for a short time, just to see what customers are really like!

One of the things I hated was inventory. The store I worked at was a small lumber yard/hardware store that was not very up-to-date on inventory methods, and so inventory involved literally walking up and down the aisles and counting items.

This past Sunday, my pastor talked about the importance of taking inventory of the past year. I much prefer this kind of inventory, especially when the choice is between inventory or new year's resolutions. I think the only consistency in new year's resolutions is that no one keeps them.



Recently I re-discovered an old playlist in one of my music streaming services. I had listened to this playlist over and over and over again when I was fighting for my marriage, and then when divorce became inevitable, so many of these songs began to mean even more.

One song in particular was "Starting a New Year" by Cheri Keaggy - someone who went through a painful valley of her own. The opening lyrics - "This has been a hard year, so much has happened to bring me here, but there's something gained to look back, so I'm reading my journal from front to back..."

I did a little of that this morning. I went back and found January 1, 2019. I started skimming pages, and if I had to sum up the year in one word, it would be this - faithful. It would sum up 2018 and 2017 as well, in spite of all the pain those years held.

God has been so faithful, even when I haven't. When I've stumbled, when I haven't been as consistent spending time in His Word as I should be (I noticed there are some major gaps in 2019's journal!!), still He is faithful.

There's another song in that playlist that maybe I'll write about down the road talking about the faithfulness of God - "When you give, when you take away, still Your name is Faithful." There's so much backstory there I don't have the space today.

But let me leave you with some encouraging words from Job:

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,  And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. (emphasis added) Job 1:20-21   

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:8-10  

Whatever you've been through this year, know this: God is faithful. When He gives, when He takes away, He is still faithful.

Whatever you're going through right now, know this: You can come out of it shining like gold. Trust His faithfulness. Seek to draw closer to Him.

Yeah, 2019 might hold some real pain for you. I don't dismiss that. I've been there. But even in the pain, I can see the faithfulness of God. Drop your anchor in that faithfulness for 2020.

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Hebrews 6:18-19