January is unique. It is the time of the year when it feels like change is possible. It feels like our lives are in our own control, and that we are capable of choosing a new pattern, a new path or a new identity. January is when we always stop and reflect on what we did and why we did it, and we try to make it better. If you haven't seen the movie "The Pursuit of Happiness," you should really watch it. In the movie, Will Smith says the line, "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it." January and the beginning of the new year have made me realize that the 10% of life that happens to us isn't meaningless. That 10% of life has purpose. While it is completely unpredictable, it is known, and has always and forever been known, by our Father. He uses that 10%. No matter how ugly, painful, or completely broken, He can bring light into the darkest corridors of the most broken lives. He brings beauty out of the ashes of our 10%. He completely loves us through it.
And then there's the 90%. The 90% of life that comes from our response to change. Our response to the circumstances and to the rejection and to the unwanted happenings of our lives has to be joy. It has to be thankfulness. It has to be surrender. If we keep holding onto our 10% and responding to life with unfaithfulness, we'll never be okay. What has happened to us and what will happen to us is not up to us. We'll never be okay if we try and try and try to figure it out. There is no easy answer to why we get hurt, knocked down and shattered. The only easy answer is to trust.
Trust Him in the waiting, in the changing and in the loneliest hours. Trust Him when it hurts. Trust that He'll carry you out of this and bring you further than you could have ever imagined because He will. We know He will. It's okay to not be okay and to let go and let God, but don't let yourself stay there. Don't remain in the numb stage where your faith isn't the core of your soul every minute of every day. Remain in Him and in His love because life isn't going to get easy. It's not going to get controllable.
Expect the 10% of life that happens to you to shake you, but realize that the Holy Spirit that is inside of you is unshakable. It is in our weakness that His strength becomes the most powerful. The wounds are where His light shines through. Let yourself break, but don't forget whose you are. Don't let the change and the pain become too heavy when your Father is so much greater. Let Him save you because nothing else will.
Surrender all to Him. Let Him take what you can't hold onto any longer. Cry out to Him because He is so close to you. He is so close to you, so be thankful. Be thankful that He's not finished yet. It's January, and no one knows what this year holds, but do not be afraid. Find a way to rest in the truth. The truth is: God's love is more relentless than the brokenness of our fallen world.
