I can’t believe we’re already getting into August. Although this year has been an uphill climb, at least it’s gone by fast. Overall, I’ve been figuring out as a young adult that usually things get way messier before ultimately getting simplified.
I see this in my faith, my relationships, with my clients, and just with life in general — growth requires a little mess to get sorted through before you are able to let go. I recently just moved, and those of you who have moved recently also know I mean this in a very literal sense too.
As compared to last year however, this year feels more like sustainable growth. For me personally, I had to walk a hard road to get there. Without this month’s column becoming a testimony, last year I had to hit a hard restart, and unfortunately I had the rug pulled out from me to be able to see all that I needed to fix. Through all the heartache, I realized that I couldn’t have done it without leaning in on God’s strength and having the people I did around me.
In chapter three of the Book of Amos, he posits, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” I find it humorous because it’s a rhetorical question — no, if you’re walking in one direction and the other person is going the opposite, you’re not walking in the same direction. Frankly, change is exhausting — whether it’s physical from packing U-Haul’s or spiritual from being misaligned, your battery can get drained pretty easily if you’re constantly going against the grain. That faith and a strong community around you is necessary to establishing that “get it done-ness” required for actual change — be it yourself or your surroundings.
And frankly, we live in a world where the common convention is to surround yourself with whomever makes you feel good, when in reality, God tells us to walk with whomever helps you become good. Discerning that, and changing your reality because of that is hard — I think that’s truly what made the past year and a half so challenging for me. It wasn’t just having the rug pulled out, it was completely updating my operating system.
We are either pushed or pulled into change. Early on in our relationship, my girlfriend said to me a really profound statement, “Life doesn’t get any easier, we just get better at doing hard things.” So while change is exhausting and can sometimes feel punitive, growth is the unintended side effect — let me ask all of you who are feeling like they haven’t been able to catch a breath to just pause and reflect for a moment. Are you even remotely the same ‘you’ as you were at the start of 2025?
Just don’t forget to appreciate the silver linings in everything along the way — my advice is always be on the lookout for them, because you never know when you’ll be truly awestruck. I felt that not when I picked up the keys to my new house, but when I hung my floating shelves up on the wall.
See y’all next month.
