A New Summer Means a New Beginning

As a teacher, I tend to measure years according to the school calendar. To me, the start of a new school year is more of a turning point or an opportunity for a new start than the beginning of a new calendar year. What’s so spectacular about looking at new beginnings this way is you have the whole entire summer to reflect upon the past year and to prepare for a fresh start in August.  This is a large part of why I’m so thankful for summer vacations. For teachers, these weeks consist of much needed days of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. It’s during this time that I tend to take a look back to the past year, inventory its events, and classify it as being a good year or a bad year. Looking back on this year, it is by far the hardest year I have ever had, both personally and professionally. However, if there’s one thing I have learned through all of it, it’s that God is faithful and He is so, so good. So, here's the story: 

The day of last year’s open house was the day our lives turned upside down. We had knowingly walked into a pretty significant change in our lives, fully believing this was where God was calling us. However, we had no idea just how much our lives would change and how difficult things would become. Long story short, we walked through the darkest and deepest valley for many weeks before the Lord delivered us from it. While it was the hardest thing we have ever had to face, we learned so much.  God was SO faithful to us, He was so good, and He provided in ways that could only be explained as God. While going through this time, we still felt (and do to this day) that God brought us there. Why He allowed us to experience such a difficult time we may never fully know, but God in His infinite wisdom had a perfect plan for us. During these months we grew as individuals, grew as believers, and grew as a husband and a wife. While tough times often rip married couples apart, this only strengthened our marriage as we clung more closely to the Lord and to each other every day.  

Although we have hit many other hurdles this year after that valley- surprise you have mono, unruly and challenging students, stresses and pressures at work, family illness, starting a new business, finishing a specialist degree, etc.- every obstacle pales in comparison to that time of trial. Maybe that’s why the Lord allowed us to go there. Now we certainly have a better perspective on difficulties in life and a deeper faith and a greater reliance on the Lord. Now that we are out of the valley, we can look back on it with a deeper understanding of who God is and who we are. While we don’t ever want to experience a trial like that again, we are thankful that we did, and wouldn’t trade the lessons we learned through it for anything.

I’m always in awe of how big God is, how much He cares for us, and just how faithful He is. When thinking about how God was with us then and how He’s with us now, I’m reminded of a song by Matt Redman called Never Once: Never once did we ever walk alone, Never once did You leave us on our own, You are faithful, God, You are faithful. Every step we are breathing in Your grace, Evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise, You are faithful, God, You are faithful. This is where I want to be every day: depending on the Lord 100% for every breath, every step, and every moment of every day.

Sometimes my awe of the Lord just bubbles up inside me and it has to escape. At times, I want to climb a mountain top and proclaim His goodness and grace. No one may ever read this, but if anyone does, I pray that in this you see a testimony to the goodness and steadfastness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I leave you with this verse from Lamentations 3:22-24: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” I pray that we will never forget God’s goodness and his favor on our lives, that we will always remember that each day brings with it new mercies, that we will constantly be reminded of the great faithfulness of the Lord, and that our souls will patiently hope in the Lord for He will be our portion.