What Do You Wish For in 2023?

Posted on Dec 29, 2022 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Lance Wubbels

May you go out in joy and be led forth with peace; may the mountains and the hills burst into song before you, and may all the trees of the field clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

In the secluded woods of northern Minnesota, my longtime friend Jeff has made a home in a place he and his wife, Carol, call “Quiet Waters.” It’s not unusual for the wildlife he loves and admires to visit his yard. With patience and persistence, he has gained the trust of some of those visitors to an extent that most people, including me, find almost miraculous. Jeff even walks with bears. I’ve seen him do so—on a forest-lined lane near his house, walking side by side with a wild bear, like a man on a stroll with his dog.

Jeff is living where he wishes to live, doing what he wishes to do, and he’s found deep contentment in his life. But it wasn’t always this way. For many long years, Jeff lived in quiet discontent in a nice house in a Minneapolis suburb and worked in a high stress job that he hated . . . and hated more each year. He was committed to providing for his wife and two sons, and he did, but his heart cry to God was that he might escape the city and be able to live close to nature. I hoped and prayed Jeff’s wish would come true, and it did. One day the pressure of his job simply pushed him too far. He quit. Walked out. Didn’t go back.

It took a couple of extraordinarily hard years for Jeff and Carol to get relocated in northern Minnesota, but they found a way together. And the transformation that has occurred in their lives is beautiful to behold. By following his heart and soul, Jeff is his own man today.

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I wish for you in 2023 what I wished and prayed for Jeff— all that your heart desires.

I wish for you dreams so big that you have to grow into them.

I hope that you will always feel fearlessly free to be you.

I wish for you the courage of conviction, the strength to persevere, and the hope that survives all trials.

When your soul is weary and troubled, I hope you remember “the Lord is my shepherd.” He’ll lead you beside quiet waters.

May you take time, when needed, to quiet your soul, silence the noise in your head and heart, and remind yourself of what you really want out of life.

I hope you realize your life is truly your life . . . it belongs to you. It is your story to write with love. Day by day, line by line, write it well.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12