Feel like 2017 was hard? Ever had a year where you just can’t win? If so, this one is for you.
Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.
Philippians 3:1
It was December 31, 2014 and I was R.E.A.D.Y. to finally end a year that had been—in my opinion—a disappointing disaster.
I went into 2014 excited to graduate high school and start college. I would also go on my first mission trip, get my driver’s license, and move away from home. Expecting the year to be memorable, I decided to keep a record of the highlights. I cut pieces of cardstock into little notecards and used them to write down a good memory from each day, which I planned to read on New Year’s Eve.
Unfortunately, as the year unfolded, my excitement and expectations became dread and disillusion. I was increasingly burdened by trials, conflicts, failures, loneliness, anxiousness, and more; all to a degree greater than I had experienced before. Six months in, I stopped recording good memories on my notecards.
By December 31, 2014, I felt more broken than I did on January 1, 2014.
Just before midnight, I read through the cards from the first half of the year, expecting to re-live my hardships. Instead, God used those little cards to help me take a second look at my long, hard year.
Here is what I journaled that night after reading the cards: Somewhere along the line I stopped keeping track of daily good things. But the good things never really did stop. I just stopped noticing them and it made things look miserable. I want to dwell on the bad, but it’s when I stop dwelling I can see the beauty.
A Second Look at the Year
Usually, it takes a second look for us to correctly understand and evaluate what is going on around us.
While some years contain true tragedies and real suffering, what we see and experience is never the whole picture. God makes it clear in Isaiah 55:8–9 that the human perspective is limited and we are not capable of fully understanding what He is doing and why.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8–9
God is omniscient, able to know all; we are not. Even if we see a year as being fruitless or filled with unnecessary pain, He sees a full reality—one bursting with the present positives and eternal glories He is producing through our lives.
Unblinding Ourselves to the Present Positives
If we are fixated on the bad in our lives or our years, we will overlook the good. The first step to re-viewing a tough year is to unblind ourselves to the present positives.
The human brain is believed to have a negativity bias, meaning we are more likely to notice, remember, and dwell on negative things than positive ones. Especially in times when we expect bad things to happen, we can blind ourselves to the good that is going on around us.
My notecards from 2014 reminded me that my year had not been all bad. The conflict did not change the fact that I had made many new friends. The struggles did not change the fact that someone I had been praying for came to church once and heard truth. My failures did not change that I had succeeded in other areas.
And above all, none of the bad changed that God had loved me through the good and the bad. In the blog post “Give Thanks,” I wrote about Psalm 136, where the psalmist continually praised God for His faithful love. This is another example of a present positive, one which cannot be taken away.
Unblinding Ourselves to the Eternal Glory
If we are fixated on the bad in our lives or our years, we will not only overlook the good, but also the way God is using the bad for His purposes. The second step to re-viewing a tough year is to unblind ourselves to the eternal glory being produced.
When I first went through all I did in my long, hard year, it was challenging for me to comprehend God’s motives for allowing certain things in my life. It didn’t make sense. Even with all the good that had happened in 2014, the bad did not feel justified.
Three years later, I can see a little better what God was doing and how He was shaping me as a person. Some of the trials, conflicts, failures, loneliness, anxiousness, etc., taught me lessons and developed within me Christ-like character traits I would not have otherwise had. Like Romans 5:3–5 explains, my trials helped me develop endurance, which developed strength of character, which strengthened my confident hope of salvation. It was all done because of God’s dear love for me.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Romans 5:3–5
That being said, not all of my trials from 2014 make sense to me even now. While some loose ends have been tied off, others look almost as unresolved today as they did back then. Luckily, my confident hope produced by the trials is not a hope that everything will make sense within this lifetime, but a hope rooted in eternity.
We are promised in 2 Corinthians 4:17 that our present troubles, “produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them.” The verse tells us that while the troubles we endure are small and short-lived, the the glory produced by them will last forever.
For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:17–18
Unblinding ourselves to the eternal benefits of present suffering requires us to point our eyes toward what cannot be seen right now. While I can see little bits of redemption today, I still do not fully understand the true impact of that year of my life had on eternity. They cannot be seen yet. For now, I trust God when He says that there is a long-lasting glory to come.
2017—A Year in Re-VIEW
With that in mind, here is how I am re-VIEWing the year 2017.
I began by reflecting on the events of each month. Like any year, it is not all good and not all bad. For some months, it was easy to see what God was doing; others took a second look. When the biggest memory from the month was a struggle, I considered what God may have been producing through what I was facing.
The goal of this exercise was three-fold:
- To help myself see 2017 in a more positive light and consider what God was doing behind the scenes.
- To encourage myself and others through what God has done.
- To serve as a model for others who would like to re-VIEW their year (or a hard year of their life) and see it light of what God is producing.
January
In January, God taught me to listen to Him and to worship through trials. As I trusted, praised, and obeyed God, my messes became tools to grow my dependence on Him.
February
In February, through some scary situations, I learned that God is sovereign—or supremely powerful—as well as supremely good.
March
In March, I grew in my ability to trust God and let Him lead. In my blog post about Cuba, I shared that I also learned to bring glory to Him through faithful obedience, rather than frantic striving.
April
In April, I grew in courage. I wrote more, spoke in front of classrooms full of people, shared my deepest hurts and secrets, and made healthier lifestyle choices.
May
In May, I was reading in Genesis about God’s faithful love. Recognizing that God is and always has been faithful and loving helped me to face some of my fears.
June
In June, I was hungry for the Word of God and God Himself. He left me in awe.
July
In July, God used rejection to teach me to cling to my identity in Him and do the next Christ-like thing I could do.
August
In August, God showed me how to be okay with every day being different and to embrace Him through uncertainty.
September
In September, God showed me the importance of growing deep and diverse roots in community, even though people are flawed.
October
In October, God used pain to teach me how to be authentic. Additionally, this month a friend of mine accepted Christ as Lord of her life!
November
In November, God used friends and family to show me that I can’t do everything alone.
December
In December, God used change to show me to embrace the present, amidst the past and the future.
2017–A Year God Used
After reviewing my 2017, this is what I realized: 2017 was imperfect. My expectations were not fully met and things happened that I never could have anticipated—for better or for worse. I would not have written it this way, but I am satisfied with the Author of my days. I have a confident hope that He will not only tie up loose ends, but also prove to me that no ends were ever loose to begin with.
No matter how 2017—or any other year—looked, we can trust that God is using the good and the bad in our lives for His glory, now and for all eternity. If we knew all He knows and understood His ways, we would not want it any other way.
God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows.
Timothy J. Keller
Next Steps
- Make a list of things that happened in 2017. Be sure to include positives and negatives.
- Pray, asking God how He views what is on your list. Then, create your own “Year in Re-VIEW,” following the model above.
- In 2018, record good things that happen and ways you see God move.
