See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. –Isaiah 43:19, NIV

As we practice beginning again this New Year, is there a new thing God is doing? A way in the wilderness? Streams in the wasteland? Are you perceiving, sensing a fresh work?

Beginning again helps us see that changes can happen, even slowly, that we can be more aware of the ways in which we are numbing instead of living, floating out to sea.

Sometimes God’s way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland do not arrive or appear in the packages we anticipated. In fact, just about never. The “way” is often crafted through the disciplines of showing up, reaching out, letting go.

The above picture was taken in Bahrain, two doors down from the villa we rented. There was a small neighborhood mosque two doors down, and I loved how Friday noon prayers would spill out into the streets and the men would just put their prayer rugs down right there on the pavement. And then they’d go to lunch and just abandon these gorgeous, ancient, vibrant rugs right there in the street. I loved it. The juxtaposition of one-of-a-kind, handmade Persian carpets lining the pavement. Cars driving right over them.

Is there a prayer rug on the pavement of your life? A beautiful flash of brazen vibrance, perhaps unexpected, in the middle of the concrete jungle? Art in the desert?

Is there a “new thing” you’re perceiving? A new work or a new way? How might you join God in his way-making in your life?

As my dear friend Linsey says, “The work is within you.” In other words, you might even already know — deep down — the next step you need to take in this new direction.

I believe that and I believe in you.

With love on this Monday,

Leeana