As I reflect on 2017, I keep thinking it was one of my most difficult years. Between working on my master's, moving, beginning a new teaching position and the difficulty with my sciatic nerve and back surgery, I don't feel like I got a lot of reprieve from some sort of mountain to climb or valley to sit in and wait for the sun to reappear.
Even after all of this, I would never say it had been a bad year. It has been difficult, but I never let the difficult take me out. I got hit a few times. I felt discouraged when the work load didn't seem to end. I felt overwhelmed when the tasks didn't stop coming, I felt beat up when the pain wouldn't go away. Through all of those blows, I never got knocked out. I never laid down refusing to get back up.
My family and I have been watching the Rocky series this week. As awesome as those movies are each one essentially carries the same story. Rocky is going to retire. Someone calls him out to fight one more time. He has to fight to prove himself, but also because that is who is. He is a fighter. He gets hit in the fights. His face gets bloody and swollen, he even staggers sometimes, but in the end he doesn't give up. He keeps coming back for more and by the end of the movie he wins.
I'm not a fighter like Rocky. I am actually a peacemaker by nature, but when it comes to the blows life sends my way I simply keep getting back up. I know the difficult moment cannot last forever. I know that there is always hope. I know I can take the next step even if I don't have the strength to take the next ten steps.
I will have more difficult moments. I may even have more difficult years. We are often chiseled and made stronger in those moments. I won't stop hoping for a victory. I won't stop getting back up after life sends a right hook. I won't stop believing in a divine purpose for my life that goes beyond the moment in front of me.
Whether you've had an amazing year of blessings and ease or a difficult year, or something in between, please be encouraged. Be encouraged when you see what you have already gone through. The most difficult things have already come your way, for me it has been cancer, MS, and debilitating pain that knocked me out for over a month. I have already made it through those things. I have already figured out how to live with the scars they leave. There isn't much more I can't handle.
As you welcome in a new year, be hopeful, be encouraged. Know that the year offers diamonds, but it may come to you as coal that needs some time and some refining before you can see the gem it will bring to your life.
I'm not speaking as someone who always has an easy time. I am speaking as someone who usually has a mountain to climb, but I keep my eyes on the view and know that as long as I keep walking I will eventually get there. Whatever mountain awaits this year, welcome it. Welcome the rugged trail, the view and the refining it will do to your character and soul.
Welcome new year and all you have!
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