This year has been no picnic (hello bi-lateral wrist fractures and double surgery), but as I reflect on the highs and lows, the growing pains, the suffering, the happiness, the new experiences, the sorrow, the joy...and everything in between...I can honestly say without any hesitation that this has been my richest, fullest, most wonderful year yet. I have witnessed the Lord's hand moving, orchestrating, and ordaining events in the most unbelievably tangible ways that it has left me utterly overwhelmed and increased my faith exponentially. He is real. He is good. His love is perfect. And He knows best. End of story.
As I was reading in Isaiah, I rediscovered a passage of scripture that I thought was perfect for the new year. Read it. Claim it. Believe it. Be encouraged.
Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters, “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:16, 18-19
On a completely unrelated note, I also wanted to share a portion of my daily C.S. Lewis reading because I loved the perspective and insight he had reflecting on individuals and eternity.
But it is also said ‘To him that overcometh I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it’ [Revelation 2:17]. What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another, the communion of the saints. If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.
From The Problem of Pain
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
So as we take on 2014, I pray we would enter into the new year with hopeful expectation that no matter what the new year holds (even if it's double broken wrists), the Lord has gone before you and has ordained every moment and everything that you will pass through. Let us press into His presence with the full assurance that only He can satisfy (Psalm 16:11) and that "better is one day in His courts than thousands elsewhere."
Happy New Year! Pop some bubbly, dance a jig, and cheers to life in Christ!
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