Another year is behind us, and a new year looms ahead.  2012 has been full of changes, ups, downs, accomplishments, regrets, and so much more.  I finished my final competitive swim season in college, I graduated from college with a BS in chemistry and a BS in biology, I started graduate school in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, I moved to Michigan, I changed CF centers yet again, I said goodbye to the life I knew at Gordon and stepped into a completely new realm where everything changed, I looked for a new church to call home after leaving Massachusetts, I made new friends and acquaintances, I started working in the lab where I will (hopefully) complete my PhD thesis research, I rented my first apartment, I bought my first car, I successfully presented my senior thesis work to my family and friends, I traveled to China and Hong Kong.  There have been good days, there have been bad days.  There have been new medical ailments (pneumonia) and the reoccurrence of old pathogens (P. aeruginosa).  There have been frustrating days, confusing days, hard days.  I regret the things I did not do, the relationships I did not pursue, the things I cannot change.  I am thankful for family and friends, both here and far away.  I am grateful for each day, every minute I have.

Throughout this year, God has been good.  He has been faithful.  Every day.  In the good times, the bad times, the hard times, the easy times.  In leaving everything I knew behind, in going somewhere where I knew nothing, no one.  In traveling to two new countries, learning, serving, my heart breaking for the children I held, knowing I could not do anything but hold them, play with them in the time they have.  In the things I cannot change, the things I wish I could, He is still God.  And He is good.

I don’t know what lies ahead, for me or for you.  All of what happened in 2012 is now behind us.  We can learn from it, remember it, but we cannot live in it.  Now, I look to what is to come – the unforseen, the unexpected, the unintentional, the seen, the known, the heard, the unheard, the expected, the intentional – and I intend to face it with faith and trust in my Lord, looking to Him for strength, direction, to learn from Him, to be His feet, His hands, His light in this broken and hurting world.  Wherever this year may take me, whether to Poland, China, Hong Kong, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, or Michigan, I want to be used for Him and His purpose.  In a hospital, in a lab, in a classroom, in my apartment, in my church, in my relationships with others, I want to be different, set apart.

My challenge is this: Hold me to it, and do it with me.  Let’s make this year different, looking to God in everything, thanking him for life each day, and living as a people set apart.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

“Good To Be Alive”, Jason Grace