Remembering to Remember

I've been sitting here trying to write this for the past hour. Why is it that sometimes words appear so easily in my head, yet are so hard to translate to paper?

Anyways, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk to you about 2018. New Year, New Me as some may say. And that's true. There are new classes, new positions in organizations, new goals for work and school. I hope you're excited for the newness of the season and maybe keep your resolution to drink more water and less coffee. Or at least try. 

But I wanted to remind you of something else as you start 2018.

This morning I was flipping through my notebook. Not like a deep personal journal, but more like a school notes, work notes, address book, list book, date book, prayer journal all in one kinda notebook. And as I flipped through starting last March going to now, I was really amazed to see all that had happened. Certain projects that were completed, things that I had prayed and prayed about that the Lord revealed, people that I met or grew close with that are now my dear, dear friends. 

I was also reminded of how last March I still didn't have a summer internship.. the very thing that every advisor pushes for. (According to them if you don't have an internship every summer from freshman year to graduation you will never get a job and be a failure at life.) Then, just at the right moment, a phone call offered me a position that I would have never imagined. And I found myself at First Pres in Columbia for a summer internship, which has now turned into a year-round internship serving the church and the ministries that the church supports in Columbia. 

It is better than anything I ever could have imagined, and the faithfulness of how the Lord provides amazes me.

Aw, so sweet, the joy of the Lord, wow Alana must just trust the Lord so well, I imagine you're thinking to yourself. 

Ha. Nope. Wrong. 

The fact is that the reason I was flipping through this notebook this morning is because I can't trust the Lord to handle my problems and instead I was looking for an old list in the beginning of the notebook with the hope that I could find a phone number that has disappeared. (I didn't find it.) 

But as I sat there turning page after page, remembering what had happened in 2017 I was astounded by what I had forgotten. Not the major life events, but all the little things that add up to big things. 

you're probably wondering where this relates to you, right?

Here it is. 

My friend, as you begin 2018, do not forget how God has kept His promises to you in the past.

Do not forget how He provided for you when you needed it, how He opened paths for you, how He shut doors that needed to be shut. Do not forget that He knows the future. Do not forget that He holds the whole world in His hands.

It's funny how these blog ideas form in my head, because I read Mark 8 the other day and have been replaying it in my head over and over again. It fits so well here.

So, in Mark 6, Jesus feeds the five thousand.  I encourage you to go read it for yourself, but the brief version is that a large crowd had gathered to hear Jesus teach and they got hungry, Jesus wanted to feed them. They only had 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. And at least 5,000 people. Bit of a problem. However, Jesus took the 2 fish and the 5 loaves and He blessed it, and gave it to his disciples to give out, and they fed all 5,000 and had 12 baskets of leftovers.

Then in Mark 8, similar situation. But this time with at least 4,000 people. This time there were seven loaves and a few small fish. The disciples questioned it, but Jesus blessed it, gave it out, and they took up seven baskets of leftovers.

Not small miracles, people. Have YOU ever tried to feed 5,000 people? Not an easy task. And it was AT LEAST 5,000/4,000 because that number did not include all the women and children there.

Okay back to my point, so the other night I had just read about how Jesus had fed the four thousand, and then a few verses later, Jesus and His disciples were out in a boat.  Notice the "they" and "them" refers to the disciples.

"And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to Him, "twelve". "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to Him, "seven." And He said to them, "Do you now understand?" Mark 8:16-21

The disciples literally had JUST watched Jesus feed AT LEAST FOUR THOUSAND PEOPLE with seven loaves and a few small fish. A little bit previously they had watched him feed AT LEAST FIVE THOUSAND people with five loaves and two fish. 

And yet, when it was just a few of them in the boat going to their next destination, they panicked about food. 

It makes me want to shake them! You just saw these crazy miracles that Jesus performed and yet you don't trust that He'll provide for you! Are you insane?

And then there was that little whisper in my heart that said "Alana, you do this all the time".

In 2017, the Lord has provided for me.. again and again and again. 

Things I so desperately prayed for, like a close church community, a job that I LOVE, a way to share the gospel with sorority girls, relationships that came out of nowhere.. He has supplied all I needed and so much more.

So my friend, as you start off this year, as you welcome in the new, as you begin to think about your new adventures and challenges.. as the panic and fear begins to creep in, friend remember His faithfulness in the past. 

We forget so easily. He provides, and provides, and promises to provide again.. and yet we panic. We fear the future. We are terrified of the unknown.

And yet, even as we don't remember, even as our eyes don't see and our ears don't hear, even as we see Him provide us with what we need and then forget again.. He still loves us. 
He still does not let go. He keeps His promises to us.

Even when we fail at remembering Him, He will never forget us. 

I'll end this letter to you today with this chunk of scripture that I refer to often.
Even in the midst of the craziness and the chaos of the new year, even in the middle of the challenges and struggles, I pray that you will always remember that once you have accepted Jesus, there is nothing can separate us from His love.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39

Nothing. And how beautiful that is.

Love,

Alana

A nice pic of First Pres Columbia where I work.. andddddd the cute boy the Lord brought to me in 2017.