2019: A Gift Yet Wrapped. A Cup Turned Up.

We’ve been here before.

Either reveling in the novelty of an unblemished year

or

unmoved and totally unimpressed because January 1, 2019 was just another day. No different from any other.

But we’ve also never been here.

It’s a time, a moment we’ve never lived before, and one we will never live again, as the current of time moves it from a stream of NOW to the Ocean of Memory.

“There’s nothing magical about January 1st,” says author, entrepreneur, and goal-planning enthusiast Lara Casey. And she’s right.

The freshness we enjoy every New Year’s day can, and Should, be experienced EVERY day —

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Every day we can experience, lean into, and depend on the steadfast (constant + unchanging) love of GOD. Each new morning brings with it new mercies—enough to get us through the day, because JESUS is faithful.

No, there isn’t anything magical about January 1. But it is significant, especially when we consider how many people start out with us on any given year and don’t live to see the next.

But you and I…

We’re alive.

We're still here.

And where there is life and breath, there is HOPE and PURPOSE yet to be fulfilled.

What will we do with that knowledge?

Only three days in, 2019 is still a gift yet wrapped. What will we do with this gift that we're only just beginning to handle? The fingers of our lives tracing the edges of this large, 365-day gift.

Photo by: Freestocks.org

Open it!

Unwrap your LIFE one day at a time and with great expectation.

The mistakes we made, the bad habits we need to put an end to, the challenges we're working through, they didn't magically disappear when the clock struck twelve midnight on the 1st. But they don’t have to define the next days of our lives either. Let’s seize the new mercies of each day.

As for me, this is the year I say yes to the grace needed to trust GOD more.

I once read (can’t remember where I read it) that God’s grace is like a waterfall. And good, bad, grateful, ungrateful, or indifferent, everyone is a cup at the bottom of this waterfall and everyone gets wet.

Photo by: John Gibbons

Some cups are turned up, and some cups are turned down, but everybody gets wet. It’s impossible not to be covered in God’s grace.

The Bible says GOD is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil (Luke 6:35). He makes the sun rise on everyone the evil and the good, the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

But embracing grace, being aware of it, and being grateful for it, is like being a cup that is turned upward at the bottom of that waterfall. A cup turned up is covered in God’s grace, both inside and out. And because the cup cannot contain all that grace being poured into it, grace overflows from it.

Photo by: Parker Whitson

I did not always have my cup turned up in 2018. And when my cup was turned down, guilt and frustration were often the result.

So I’m living with my cup turned up in 2019. I’ll be clutching to the fullness of God.

Instead of feeling overcome by mom-guilt or wife-guilt (yes, that’s a thing), there will be plugging into mom-grace and wife-grace. Instead of seeing hardships as a never-ending challenge, I will see them as an opportunity to build my faith and experience greater grace.

Like the new mercies that come with each new day, there is also sufficient (enough) grace to get us through.

For more on grace read 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.

Join me in living with a cup turned up this year.

Let 2019 be the year we:

Trade guilt for grace.

Choose gratitude and joy.

Love people and find ways to be of service to others.

Make time for the people who love us.

Set impossible goals and then trust GOD’s power to achieve them.

Wishing you Grace + Peace in 2019 and Beyond!

P.S. Looking for an EASY read to help you build your faith? Sign up to receive a FREE copy of my 40 Days of Faith devotional eBook! Here's the link.