Lord willing, this year I will be entering a new decade of life. And with that comes excitement, reflection, and enough discouragement and disappointment to taint the first two.
When we are entering our twenties, the whole world of possibilities is open to us, and we dream with abandon.
In our thirties, most likely we have narrowed our career opportunities down, having tried and jettisoned various options.
Our forties? We have probably settled into a career and are now looking to move forward and make our mark.
But somewhere around fifty and as we grow older, we begin to realize that perhaps there is not enough time to do all that we had hoped to do. We remember lost opportunities, opportunities that never materialized in the first place, or those that we might now be too old to pursue. These reflections only increase as the years past. And sometimes we feel a bit like a failure, like we really haven’t accomplished much over the years.
But . . .
One of the most beloved Christmas movies is It’s a Wonderful Life — the story of a young man who because of life circumstances and personal decisions is derailed from his life’s dreams and puts him on a path he hadn’t wanted to take. As his career crumbles around him because of someone else’s actions, the weight of this failure crushes him, and he decides the world would be better off without him, so he resolves to jump off the bridge into the swirling river below. Until . . . Clarence.
We all know the story. Clarence reruns his life for him, and even though it was not the one he had hoped and dreamed of, there was no mistaking that the life he did live, the decisions he did make, the person he did become was invaluable to those around him.
Wherever we are in life—whatever age —whatever circumstances—we need to remember that nothing is wasted with God. He uses everything to either bring us to Him or to sanctify us and bring Himself glory.
We need to remember that what we deem as lost opportunities have been either redesigned into new opportunities or were the original opportunities to begin with.
Remember Jeremiah 29:11 states that just as He had with the Israelites, He knows the plans has for us, “plans to prosper [us] and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] hope and a future.”
And perhaps we need to be reminded of Proverbs 19:21 as well that says, ”Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
As 2025 ends, let's not look back over the year or years with disappointment on what didn’t happen. Instead, let's praise God for what He has done and the role we played even if we are not aware of it.
And as 2026 unfolds let’s remember "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” Proverbs 16:9.
Happy New Year!
When we are entering our twenties, the whole world of possibilities is open to us, and we dream with abandon.
In our thirties, most likely we have narrowed our career opportunities down, having tried and jettisoned various options.
Our forties? We have probably settled into a career and are now looking to move forward and make our mark.
But somewhere around fifty and as we grow older, we begin to realize that perhaps there is not enough time to do all that we had hoped to do. We remember lost opportunities, opportunities that never materialized in the first place, or those that we might now be too old to pursue. These reflections only increase as the years past. And sometimes we feel a bit like a failure, like we really haven’t accomplished much over the years.
But . . .
One of the most beloved Christmas movies is It’s a Wonderful Life — the story of a young man who because of life circumstances and personal decisions is derailed from his life’s dreams and puts him on a path he hadn’t wanted to take. As his career crumbles around him because of someone else’s actions, the weight of this failure crushes him, and he decides the world would be better off without him, so he resolves to jump off the bridge into the swirling river below. Until . . . Clarence.
We all know the story. Clarence reruns his life for him, and even though it was not the one he had hoped and dreamed of, there was no mistaking that the life he did live, the decisions he did make, the person he did become was invaluable to those around him.
Wherever we are in life—whatever age —whatever circumstances—we need to remember that nothing is wasted with God. He uses everything to either bring us to Him or to sanctify us and bring Himself glory.
We need to remember that what we deem as lost opportunities have been either redesigned into new opportunities or were the original opportunities to begin with.
Remember Jeremiah 29:11 states that just as He had with the Israelites, He knows the plans has for us, “plans to prosper [us] and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] hope and a future.”
And perhaps we need to be reminded of Proverbs 19:21 as well that says, ”Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
As 2025 ends, let's not look back over the year or years with disappointment on what didn’t happen. Instead, let's praise God for what He has done and the role we played even if we are not aware of it.
And as 2026 unfolds let’s remember "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” Proverbs 16:9.
Happy New Year!
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