Change

About one year ago this month, my family and I visited Gatlinburg, TN. The picture above was actually taken up near the Tennessee/North Carolina border, when you travel on Route 441 from Gatlinburg into the Smokey Mountains. It was a beautiful drive.

We hope to visit Gatlinburg again in the near future, and we will more than likely be in the same places we were about one year ago. The only difference is, I hope I am not in the same place.

I hope I am at a different place than I was last year.

What I mean by this is that I hope I am different. I hope I have changed, for the better! Here it is October; 2011 is quickly racing to a close, and it seems I was just reflecting on the changes I wanted to make and goals I wanted to reach in my life for this year.

So tonight I'm considering, am I really different? How am I doing at making those changes I wanted to make at the beginning of the year?

In some ways, I believe I am better. In other ways, I remain the same, or seem to have slipped backwards.

I don't believe we are supposed to stay stagnant and struggle with the same things all our lives. God has made us to be victorious and calls us to holiness.

I am thankful tonight, because the year is not over yet... I am still sucking air, and so I still have another opportunity to change, to get better, to become more like Jesus.

This year, as I visit the same place I was a year ago, I hope I will be in a different place.