Flipping The Calendar
I don’t know about you, but I love flipping the calendar to a new year. Oh the possibilities! Oh the thinks you can think (thank you, Dr. Seuss)!
But I have to remind myself that it doesn’t take the start of a new year to live out God’s purposes for my life. EVERYDAY we wake up, we have the opportunity to serve God. EVERYDAY we have breath, we have the opportunity to make His name known. EVERYDAY that we are here on this earth, it’s for a very specific purpose. EVERYDAY. And I want to wake up everyday eager to see what God has in store me.
This past year has had many challenges and trials, but it has also had many many joys and laughter. Living with congestive heart failure continues to bring it’s daily and sometimes hourly challenges, but I am 4 years post-op and haven’t needed another “big one” yet. This year brought on another failed ablation and many doctor appointments, but this new year brings on another year of surviving heart failure and trusting that God numbers my days. I continue to bypass a transplant and that continues to be the goal of both of my heart teams – to try to prolong the need as we can.
Sadly, the medication that they were hoping would curb the need for a transplant, I had a reaction to and can no longer take. Right now the goal is to try and get my body regulated again and then maybe look at another med down the road. It was very disheartening to not only be quite sick on it, but have to stop taking it all together. It felt like lost hope, but that’s where that trust piece comes in. No med can thwart the plans of my Father in Heaven! Of course I wish to feel better and to not have to deal with the many side effects of my meds, but as I told my doctor recently, I can live. What a gift!
As I turn the calendar, I have to remember that even though heart failure is so much a part of my every day life, I have been made for SO much more. I know God will use it in ways I never expected!
So what about you? As you turn the calendar, are you hopeful and hope-filled for EVERYDAY that God has given you? Even amidst the struggles? It’s not always easy, I’ll be the first to raise my hand. Whatever burden or struggle you are carrying with you into the new calendar year, may you rest in God’s grace knowing it’s not without purpose!
Oh the thinks you can think!
