As this year draws to a close, I find myself asking those “annual questions.” Where am I going? What is consuming my time? How can I simplify my life? What does God have in store next year? I look forward, but I also look backward because an important part of knowing where you’re going is understanding where you’ve been. This kind of thinking gives us our bearings, orients us to our current location and direction. 

I look back on the near past, and I see singular events that have shaped my life, my heart; some have changed the very way I think. You know the kind of events I’m talking about, because you’ve been there. Loved ones surviving deadly illness. Solid family ties shattered by sin. Car wrecks that could have been much worse. These kinds of things make us sit down and rethink things, reorganize priorities.

I also see ongoing rituals, repeated events, habits that have shaped who I am. We’ve all got these habits—some good, some bad. For me, these rituals include living with my wife and daughter, serving on a church leadership team, and working full-time for myself.

Events leave imprints on our lives, whether they are singular anomalies or daily occurrences. The key thing is to understand that for those who love Christ, each and every event has the potential for good. The Message version of the Bible says Romans 8:28 this way: ”That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Picture your life as a stream of water flowing through a desert. As singular events and ongoing rituals become parts of your life, this stream enlarges. A small stream meandering across the ground becomes a rushing river that moves the ground beneath, digging itself deeper and wider through layers of soil and shale until it forms canyons with depths that were unthinkable many years before. This is how God formed the Grand Canyon, and this is how God forms our hearts. That’s the power of the process.

You see, God is all about change. Not that He changes, for He will never cease being the perfect, holy God we know. Rather, God is an unchanging God of change who continually broadens the stream of our lives, turning trials into perseverance, worry into peace, tears into comfort, urging us to dig deeper in Him. Major heart changes can happen suddenly, but our Lord seems to prefer the Grand Canyon approach in many cases. Just look at what His Word says!

“God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love--like Christ in everything.” (Eph 4:15a, The Message)

“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” (Phi 1:6, The Message)

“…like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation…” (1Pe 2:2, NASB)

“…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2Pe 3:18a, NASB)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God is moving each one of us to new depths in Him. As you look back on your past, thank God for what He has brought you through. Praise Him for the joys and the trials, and the fruit they have borne in your life and the lives of others. Remember also to look to the future, planning as God leads to move out in His power, to do what He has called you to do. God has brought you thus far for a great purpose, and you should pursue that tenaciously, for only our God “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” (Eph 3:20)