Homegrown Depot Blog

I have been thinking quite a bit about saying, “Goodbye,” to the past year. Frankly, there are some parts I wish were not a part of the collective memory. I have joked, not very well, about being glad that the year is done. Now I am aware that many of our friends feel like they would love to see a continuation of 2024. Good stuff kept rolling. Kids married nearly perfect spouses, they received raises, their teams won and they even lost a few pounds without trying, but even the most fortunate of us have to admit that every year has its share of turmoil. As I processed this past annuum, I have decided my approach to this last calendar year isn’t very helpful. It actually is unbiblical and even untrusting of my God’s intent. Here’s where I start. 

 

I begin by acknowledging the difficult things as being uncomfortable, perhaps even unwanted. 

Some of you have had years that are beyond desired. Illness, loss of loved ones, jobs lost, family tensions, disappointing kids and unforeseen hurdles crowd into our otherwise perfect year. If I had my way, bad things would not have happened. I also would not have had to stretch toward eternity. 

 

In each struggle, although I cannot pretend to see what God is doing, I know that He is doing. This doesn’t mean He has caused the cancer, cost me my relationship or lost control of the world. It does mean that we can find Him in each of these things, at work to bring about His great story. I really have to learn to see my life as a small part of HIS story. Sometimes it makes me feel a bit like an insignificant pawn in God’s master plan, chess game.

 

If I remove the fact that God loves me and endured ultimate discomfort, pain, inconvenience and shame for my sake, I often feel as if He doesn’t really care. A lot of people give up on submitting to His love because they have already determined they are good enough without it. If I, however, realize His intent in allowing struggle, no matter how difficult, and this is the additional caveat, this life on earth, which being all I have experienced, is a preparatory precursor to eternity, is to refine and mold me into the image of Christ. 

 

I was sitting on a deck in Tennessee with my two son-in-laws and my oldest daughter. They were involved in a deep discussion about how they each, had learned to embrace their faith in Jesus Christ, personally. It was incredible to be the fly on the wall. 

 

The three themes that unified them were consistency of believers around them, the regular intervention from the hand of God and suffering. The last caught my attention. I actually wondered if believers (primarily me) should seek out struggle. Fortunately, 2024 offered me adversity as a tool toward greater reliance on Christ. I didn’t have to seek it out this year. You see, if suffering is one of the primary keys to embracing Christ on this deeper plane, then I have been gifted intimacy by virtue of challenge. 

 

2024 was a shaper of my mind, heart and resiliency. Gifts of a loving God.

 

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

 

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Here are a few lessons from the pits of despair… or should I say, “Hope.”

Each struggle has an eternal purpose.

Most likely, I cannot see it today, any better than Job, Joseph or any of the other scriptural sufferers. I may not until I walk in eternity. I can trust the process though. God is faithful and good.

 

I choose how these circumstances will shape me.

Each distress affords me an opportunity to lean into my walk with Jesus or to run away from Him. This is no easy decision. I have to squelch my own sense of entitlement, aversion to misfortune and desperate desire for ease. Each hardship is formidable because I want whatever comes easily, but true growth always comes from battle. It’s as if there is an unseen battle for my soul. I believe that my eternal soul rests in God’s hands, but I can lose my hope in that faith. Each day I must choose to trust God’s plan.

 

Each person has to learn these truths on their own.

I am the focus of each affliction. God intends for each of these distresses to make me into something I am not yet. 

As 2025 was rung in, I couldn’t help dread a little of the unknown struggles. There is too much trust to jump into a new year. After all, none of us know what it will hold. We do know who holds it all though. We know what His intent is. 

I suppose being grateful for 2024 is a great start to anticipating a remarkable 2025.