It is that time of the year again.
You know that time, when people start to do reviews about the past 11 and half months.
The past 50 weeks.
The past 350 days.
When they look at lists of expectations – some met, some unmet.
Then, they place a tag on the year.

It is that time we start to see captions like:
“…Last minute miracles still happen…”
“…Whatever hasn’t happened in the past 11 months can still happen these 2 weeks left in the year…”
“Don’t give up; it is still your year…
“He crowns the year with fatness…”
“It took God only 7 days to create the whole world, he can still do all you expect in the few days left…”
And all that.
I most certainly agree with those captions: God can!

But, that’s not what this post is about.

Because, it just never stops. When you are done with the current year, you start again with applying pressure on the next 365 days of the New Year.
And on and on it goes. You are always somehow anticipating a better tomorrow.
And, that’s most definitely a good thing. Because, tomorrow will be better. That is our confidence.

But, again, that is not what this post is about.

I sat down some minutes ago, thinking about all the roads yet travelled, you know those things ahead of me. I started to get a bit pensive. And, then I felt a gentle tug on my heart: Be grateful.
While, you’re there yearning for the next level fifteen from your current level ten, someone is on level zero just wishing they could at least get up to level one!
The very thing you think is nothing, is what someone somewhere is praying desperately for.
Maybe, something as basic as having a warm bed to sleep in tonight.
Or, having warm food in your stomach.
Or, having babies who hug you every night.
Or, just being able to breathe unaided, to look out and see the sunshine, to feel the wind on your skin…

A lot of the things you take for granted are someone’s big miracle… What someone woke up this morning praying for. What they went to bed last night, soaking their pillows for.
It sounds like a cliche, I know. But, it is so true.
You sit in your current job, waiting for the next big one. Meanwhile, someone, somewhere has not had a job this year.
You look at your tiny apartment, dreaming of the country home. Or, you look at your big apartment, dreaming of an even bigger one!
And there is someone right at this minute praying to not sleep out in the snow tonight, or to not have to hide under some bridge in the cold tonight, or wondering how to pay the rent in a few days time!

Be grateful.

I have a friend who sometimes responds with, ‘’I am alive’’ when I ask how she is.
I find that funny (and I usually tell her this), but when you think about it deeply, that is something to be grateful for. Life. Being alive, knowing that God is in your today and tomorrow, and the day after.
Because, at the end of all your yearnings and dreams, God can be trusted.

So, I just want to urge you today to turn all those desires that make you feel so sad and left behind to Him with that one truth at the back of your mind, God can be trusted.

Whisper these words to Him: “Father, you are trustworthy and I am truly thankful for this remarkable life you have given me. Nothing to ask for right now, I just trust you with me. Lead me in the way I should go. I lay aside the pressure to be or do and I just trust you with me. With all of me. In Jesus name. Amen”

Be grateful. Be truly grateful. God is trustworthy.