Happy New Year!

2009, the year of refinement.

I look back over this past year, as I have done every New Years Eve before, and I am simply speechless.

Last year as I looked ahead, I could never have fathomed what was to come. I could never have imagined that a year could bring and take away so much. I could never imagine that a year could bring so much change. Be so life altering and so life shattering. That a year could be so amazing and so heart breaking. That a year, one simple year, could bring all that is has. Never. could. have. imagined.

So I sit here, shaken to my core, changed, refined, alive.
I am more alive spiritually and emotionally than I ever have been.

Although this year has taken so much away, it has instilled in me a faith so deep and a love so strong, I truly do not understand how I ever lived with out it. How I was even able to breathe with out it. How could I have lived not knowing the extent of the arms of Jesus?

I recently was made aware of a song by Hillsong called "Desert Song" (thanks Jess!!), and I love it.


"And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames"

refine: to free from impurities or unwanted material, to free from moral imperfection

Have you ever witnessed the refinement process? A substance is heated to the point it becomes something completely new and altered. It is a very harsh transformation.
However, the end result is magnificent.

Isn't it amazing that the Lord, the creator of the entire universe, loves us enough to refine us? That He desires nothing but for us to be pure and perfect? That He knows us so intimately that He can mold us and create in us a beauty we never though possible. Thank you Father for your refiners fire. Thank you for all the seasons, whether it be the desert, the fire, the battle, or the bounty. I will praise You through it all, for You are still God!!

So, I am thankful for a God who gives and takes away. A God who loves with a love we can not humanly understand. I am so thankful that I get to be a part of His perfect plan. That I may be refined to be more like Him. Thank you Lord for Your love, Your sacrifice, Your forgiveness, Your grace, and mostly Your fire....

2009, the year of refinement.....
I look forward to 2010 and all that it may have in store......

Picture recap...





















For the Lord has done GREAT things for us and we are filled with JOY! Amen!