Restoration

Today was a culmination of something. It was a beginning, although it was also an end.

The end of my Master's program and the beginning of this next incredible season of my life.

I believe today marks a new season for me, a season of restoration, which I believe will be the theme of 2013.

A Year of Restoration.

See what most don't know is what was lost in order to reach this day. What God had to lovingly, but sometimes forcibly remove. What had to be sacrificed by many.

6 years ago I received by 13th and final medical school rejection letter. It was one of the darkest times of my life. Lost, confused, rejected.

But today, all that seemed to have been lost that day, in that season, was restored. Not just restored, but overwhelmingly restored.

Yes, my dreams of being a medical doctor were lost. But, my calling to be a healer was restored and fully brought to fruition, on this day, where my final instructor said: "I would be happy to have you as my colleague. Welcome fellow nurse practitioner."

See the truth is, when we believe in an everlasting, almighty, loving and faithful God, nothing is ever really lost. All circumstances work unto our good and ultimately for His incredible glory.

I wouldn't have had it any other way. This incredible YES obliterates every no I have faced leading up to it.

The Book of Joel, chapter 2, vs 25-27 state:

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed."

I praise God for His uncanny ability to restore what was lost not only to its fullness, but beyond its measure. 

I can truly say today I have plenty to eat, I am full, and God has indeed worked wonders. And most importantly I know that in all of this:

There is none, absolutely none like our God.