Hello new year, let me introduce you….to Andy

As the pages have turned into a new year it’s that time again to reflect, dream and plan for what’s next…for what 2023 will bring our way. So often we make our plans and resolutions, strive as hard and with as much effort as we can muster and then we begin to wait and see what comes our way. We wait to see the kind of year this one will be. And then react to it. This year I was blessed enough to run into a devotional that provided a different perspective. To sum it up the approach was instead of waiting, maybe in a place of worrying or even being excited about what this new calendar might bring, you invite the year to meet you instead. Most years I’ve been waiting to meet it and learn if this is going to be a good year, bad year or some mix in between.

2023 let me introduce you to Andy because there are a few things about him you should know. Your brothers and sisters over the past 6 years have not been so kind. They’ve left him at times worried about what could be around the next bend. So far in that time you’ve blindsided him with his marriage of 17 years ending so painfully, seen him get laid off from his job of 12 years, watch his dad get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and progress through that dreadful disease, rebuild his life, try love again and it end up in ashes, and finally see his constant furry pal through it all have to be put down. So 2023, you could see why he could be a little gun-shy after meeting your siblings.

2023 to be prepared to meet Andy there is probably one thing more than all the others important to understand. Each of the others found out in their own way. He has one bedrock, one thing that he’s driven back to again and again no matter what comes his way. He’s stubborn in this way but he knows no other way. His foundation, his capstone, his cornerstone is that he is beloved. When the years are unkind, he doubled-downs on a reality outside of time and space that he is loved. You can kick him, knock him down, bruised but he won’t stay that way. He’s like the man robbed and beaten and left for dead on the side of the road in the story of the Good Samaritan. There is always One who comes and bandages up his wounds, patches his heart back together and sits with him as he heals. There are times and circumstances where it’s gets covered over and buried so deep that he’ll begin to forget it for a time or question it. But he always finds his way back to that one reference point.

The other thing you should know 2023 is he is much stronger than he looks. The others have made your way harder because each year he’s discovered a little more about just how much he can come through. Know he will find a strength outside of himself just when you think he’ll quit. He’s resilient in that way. He now knows his track record against anything brought is 100%. He will bend but will not break. Also this is probably as good a time as any to let you know he’s not alone. While quiet, reserved at times, and his friends and family, honestly his framily, may be fewer than some, but he will seek them out, and they he, when times are tough. He will lean into them when needed and they will pop into his life unannounced but at just the right time to help hold him up when things are at their worst.

You will have to find your own way when it comes to meeting him. I’d say try to be his friend, … or his enemy but in the end the reality is that it doesn’t much matter. 2023 you will be introduced and meet Andy on his terms, not yours. You can send goodness or ill his way, it won’t much matter. Either way he’s going to act and settle into a reality that he’s loved, tremendously outside of all those things so you can’t touch him. But he will touch you. There will be days he’ll surprise you, astound you and turn things around for himself and for others. There are days he’ll be tired and ragged and barely hanging on. But he will hang on. He’ll stubbornly believe something better may be around the next bend, but rest in the knowledge that whatever comes can’t impact the reality of how he’s viewed or seen. But more than anything he’ll be a constant of belovedness. He’s decided that if he believes or knows nothing else in this life, regardless of whether others, jobs, or circumstances back him up, he will choose to act and believe out of a reality that he is loved. He’ll rest in it for himself and he’ll make space and push others to know for themselves. 2023 you’ll have a grand adventure alongside him…but don’t test him, he’s getting feisty.