Every year seems to move faster than the one before. More. Faster. Better. Accomplish. Attain. Do. Create. Come through.

We get caught in this cycle of making this year better than the one before, but better isn’t always more. Lots of times, better can be less. I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions, but I’ve got one this year. It’s to simply slow down. Breathe. Be. Become.

This is a little bit lame, but I just took this picture in my living room while moving the camera really fast. You get the gist. There’s a Christmas tree, fire place, a rug and maybe you can tell there are flowers on the coffee table.

The truth is, there’s a lot more in this picture that you can’t see than you can, because it was taken more quickly than it should have been. The flowers are half dead. The fireplace doesn’t work. There’s a tiny glass bottle on the mantle filled with sand from Manly Beach in Sydney. There’s a vase on the floor filled with little pinecones from Grand Teton National Park. The rug is flipped up on one side because I overwatered a plant today that leaked all over it. There’s a perfect wooden angel on the mantle that my mom gave me. The ornaments have been taken off the tree, but it’s still there because its too heavy for me to take upstairs. There is a strand of lights out on the tree. The room is really clean because I spent the afternoon cleaning and it smells so good – like oranges and a lavender candle. Yum!

Saying goodbye to 2014 was not hard. It was a weird year; a year I couldn’t live without (who can skip a year!?) and one I don’t want to live again, but I learned a whole lot. One of those things is this: the faster you move, the less clearly you see. So slow down. See the whole picture. Hear and see God move and speak in all the ways He moves and speaks. There is a depth to who He is that we cheapen by looking so fast we don’t see all He had for us to see.

So, here’s to clear sight, 2015. Here’s to seeing people. All of them. Here’s to family. Here’s to Thy Kingdom come. And here’s to the full measure of the promises of God for all of us.

Happy New Year.

He is the Wind.