“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” -Psalm 23-6-

It is a brand new year, and I’ve got to say that 2020-2022 has been a weird time for the world. In March 2020, the entire world shut down, and it took about 16 months to return to some type of normalcy. In that time, so much has happened, bad and good, but for me, a lot of good came out of it. I found my footing, chased my passion, and found my voice. All those things I attribute to my salvation through Jesus Christ. My entire life, I have felt out of place wherever I was or whomever I was with, and I could never understand why. The other day, it hit me right upside my head, I have been set apart and made to feel uncomfortable in places where everyone else felt normal, so I would seek God’s face. I had searched for comfort and companionship everywhere I could and still felt like something was missing. In retrospect, I was very disconnected from those around me, from my brothers to my best friends.

I remember being 15 years old when one of my best friends from junior high, Tyronne Thompson, had come back from seeing his dad in Jamaica for the summer. Let me tell you, this kid was girl crazy before he left for summer vacation, but when he came back, he was different. He looked the same, but his demeanor was different; that bravado he had was gone. Even the manner in which he spoke was more humble, so I asked him what had happened. He told me a story about how his father was in a situation where someone tried to take his life. The person was about 5ft away from him and opened fire, emptied the entire clip, and not one bullet hit him. After that moment, he called out to God and gave his life to Christ. Ty told me he saw his life going down the same path if he didn’t change, and he followed suit and gave his life to Christ.

Now before he told me he follows Jesus, he told me of a dream he had before he submitted to the LORD. In the dream, he was running toward this light, and every time he got closer, the light would ascend. When the light rose to a point where he couldn’t reach it by running, he began to climb to get to it, but it began getting harder to climb. When he looked down, he saw a bunch of women holding on to him, preventing him from reaching the light. The weight of his pursuers became so heavy he felt like he was drowning, but before he was completely submerged, he screamed for Jesus. A hand reached out and grabbed him just as he was sinking into the sea of women, and he was pulled into the light. At the time, I didn’t get it, so I laughed at him, but he didn’t get upset like I had thought he would. He was deadly serious, and he just kept telling me why it was important to change.

What I hadn’t told anyone at that point was that for 3 nights, I had been unable to sleep properly; I would wake up all hours of the night and stare at the bottom of the top bunk. Eventually, I broke down and started to cry with no understanding of why. God was tugging at my heart, and I had resisted up to that point, but I couldn’t hold out any longer; what Ty was telling me about was cutting through the thickness of my stubbornness. That day I was saved and became a born-again believer. Though my mother took my brothers and me to church all the time, I never felt the pull of the LORD like I had when my friend gave that testimony of him and his father. For years after that, I tried to live the best moral life I could through my own understanding because I was going to church with mom, and I still didn’t really get the sermons all that much because they were all in french-creole. My translational skills were not up to snuff yet. All the while though I knew I had to go, That proclamation I made that Jesus was my Lord and savior stuck with me. Through every misstep, God was with me. Every time I tried to pull away, I was drawn back in. All because God kept his promise of being with me ALL the days of my life.

Since those days, I have back-slid a lot, but because of the blood of Jesus, I have been redeemed. I repented and re-dedicated my life to the LORD. In the past 5 years or so, I have been closer to God than I ever thought I would be. Though I still mess up a lot, I know that when I keep my eyes on Jesus, he will see me through. God gave me so many things I’ve prayed for over the years, not because I wanted them but because I needed them on this walk. God has shown me through tons of mediums that he is forever chasing me. One of those mediums is my family; they are living proof that God is with me every day. In our day-to-day lives, we chase money, recognition, power, and love, among other things. I’ve only ever been joyful when I was chasing what was chasing me, and it was nothing the world could offer me. As the new year has begun, I pray that we are transformed in our hearts and renewed in our minds and spirits by the living word of God. New Year, new you, SAME GREAT GOD!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post today; you are and will always be appreciated. It is 2023, and every year of life is a blessing. Last year was trying for me as I dealt with uncertainty after moving to another state. I just couldn’t get my balance with all the changes. Toward the end of the year, God made things perfectly clear to me. I have to trust in him more; every time I get worried, the Holy Spirit prompts me to calm down because he’s making a way. If anyone out there is dealing with scary, trying times, pray with all your heart and allow God to be who he’s always been; A promise keeper!