If there’s one important thing I learned from this year of leaning, it’s that God is always there to offer hope. I simply have to intentionally lean in a different direction than the challenges I’m currently facing to embrace what He’s saying.
November was a month of leaning beyond personal limits. We all tend to fall into a pattern of doing only the the things that seem possible to us. What starts as a plan to set healthy limitations can eventually turn into a list of things we believe we can never do
If it weren’t for the fact that I was so far into this commitment to lean where I needed to, I would have said no to some of the best memories and experiences of my year. Instead, I persevered and leaned beyond what my gut reactions would have been. The act of leaning beyond made me a better person, and it also prepared me to grieve deep and hopefully well.
Much of my reflection on leaning has taken place as I’ve biked the trail near my house. On November 27, I had come home from a funeral and decided to hit the trail to clear my head a little. The wind was strong and against me in every direction. It seemed fitting for the day, but as I continued to pedal, I found a renewed strength.
As crazy as it may sound, the resistance of the wind was just the message of hope I needed. I could laugh at the wind and persist on my journey because I’d made it through so many experiences in the past few weeks that had challenged my limits. I knew that moving forward was possible, even if it was challenging.
While this post may be simple, my soul has been stretched the most of all from leaning beyond.
This is my post about leaning from November. I know I’m tardy in getting it published on here, but I haven’t had the time to transfer it from my writer’s notebook until now. Better late than never, I suppose. 🙂