Something New

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Happy 2019, dear friends.

We have started a new year. Since I was last here, I have read about 10 books, burned a lot of candles, visited family, came back to NYC, tried to go back to my pre-holiday perfect sleep routine (still in progress), been guilt-tripped by my new Fitbit, transitioned more things in my house to non-toxic products, cooked more new meals with my beloved, cleaned out some closets, saved more money, wrote an abstract to see if I can make it to a conference to present a paper– the list goes on. I have been busy. But I didn’t forget about this place. I have been processing so much, I wasn’t even sure what to say to usher in the new year.

Before this year started, I had gotten myself a new planner in the form of Powersheets, from Cultivate What Matters. I set some very specific goals for the year and frameworks for how to achieve them. I have to say this month has been incredibly productive and action-packed, on that end. Just the fact that I committed to writing that abstract and application for the conference was a goal met, regardless of whether the pitch is accepted. I knew that, this year, I wanted to keep trying new things. I wanted to keep daring, and it has been clear to me that God has been nudging me to dream bigger and to get out of the mindset I have had.

I have always been ambitious, but that ambition also came with very “realistic” and cautious limitations. No one wants to be foolish, right? But this year has been different. From the minute it started, I found myself committed to more growth and doing the work that comes with acquiring more knowledge. I have been willing to be seen as foolish to risk getting a seemingly impossible yes.

I am not going to make this post a book, but I have been learning so much about boundaries, dreams, and living intentionally and with an urgent Godly passion.

No matter what is coming next, I want to move into it as a healthy, whole and maturing person. It’s only month one, but I have been so encouraged by the baby steps taken, each day. Inching closer and closer to that edge of something new.

This quote by Erwin McManus has inspired me so much, in recent days:

“Yes, Solomon said there’s nothing new under the sun, but he also said that everything is meaningless. But everything isn’t meaningless. Life can be full of meaning. It’s only meaningless when our lives are absent of God. Yet when our lives are alive in God, our lives are full of meaning. Of course, there would be nothing new under the sun if we lived our lives apart from God, but we were never intended to live apart from Him. We were always intended to live our lives with Him, and with Him there is always something new.” Erwin McManus, The Last Arrow

How do we know that God is always trying to give us something new, as soon as we are able to receive it? He says so.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:19

I hope your 2019 is off to a good start. Healing and growth are not the most comfortable places to be, but there is something exciting in forgetting the former things and forging the new. Let’s brush off our unhappiness or dissatisfaction or the capricious nature that sometimes clouds our judgment. Make room to receive the unexpected. Have your actions prepare the way for the impossible. Be love in action.

What is He springing up in your life? Perceive it now! See, He is doing a new thing. And we know that if it’s from Him, it has to be good.