After a challenging 2024, Lisa Elliott reflects on trials, trauma, and setbacks, showing how focusing on God’s presence and promises can transform perspective, restore hope, and help us trust Him in every circumstance.
This article appeared in the Just Between Us Weekly Digital Magazine.
By Lisa Elliott
I was feeling the effects of 2024. It had been quite a year; full of transition, tears, and trauma. Or, at least that’s the way I was looking at it. Typically, known for being a cup-half-full kind of girl, suddenly all I seemed to be able to see was my cup-half-empty.
Somewhere along the way, I had lost my hope. Or perhaps, I had simply misplaced it. Rather than focusing on the God of hope, I was putting my hope in circumstances and people. My thinking was skewed and my perspective warped.
The apostle Paul says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (Jas. 1:2). Nonetheless, as I considered all we’d been through, it was hard to be very joyful about the year coming to a close. Much less, be very hopeful about the year ahead. I identified with what the Israelites must have felt when they were encamped between the Egyptian army in hot pursuit behind them and the daunting Red Sea ahead of them.
My husband and I had a good discussion about it all one day as we approached the new year. We went for a long winter’s walk and I humbly disclosed my self-doubts in lieu of the past as well as my fears, anxieties, and uncertainties of the future that lay ominously ahead.
When he asked me what word I would use to describe 2024. I used the word “trauma.” He understood. Thankfully, he knew me too well to leave me in my “woe is me” downward spiral state. We decided to warm up with a hot drink at a favorite coffee shop in town. Then, together we walked through the entire year. Month by month we listed the events that took place to give context to my negative and emotional response to each one.
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