Happy New Year to All!
New day! New year! New joy!
It seems particularly marvelous to me that just as I begin to finally get my life organized and, really, begin my adult life, a new year begins!
What am I going to do this year? I'm going to begin the rest of my life.
As the new year begins I will be moving back up among many of you, renewing friendships, and revisiting old places, but also, and perhaps more, I will be exploring my future, learning who I am and who I can become. I don't mean that I'll leave any of you behind -- I won't, you've become part of my world.
Still, a certain sadness and regret gripped my heart, nagging unshakably, as the year drew to a close. I had lost another year. That was one year less that I would have in this glorious life. It was gone and would never come back. I don't like finality and I don't like endings.
But then I realized what the year had brought me: many precious moments and conversations with friends on both sides of the ocean and also another year of God pursuing me, guiding me, and shaping me.
I'm not the same person I was this time last year. I've grown. I know it and I feel it and I thank God for it! No, I wouldn't trade that for anything. And now I look forward...
This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls."
It seems particularly marvelous to me that just as I begin to finally get my life organized and, really, begin my adult life, a new year begins!
What am I going to do this year? I'm going to begin the rest of my life.
As the new year begins I will be moving back up among many of you, renewing friendships, and revisiting old places, but also, and perhaps more, I will be exploring my future, learning who I am and who I can become. I don't mean that I'll leave any of you behind -- I won't, you've become part of my world.
Still, a certain sadness and regret gripped my heart, nagging unshakably, as the year drew to a close. I had lost another year. That was one year less that I would have in this glorious life. It was gone and would never come back. I don't like finality and I don't like endings.
But then I realized what the year had brought me: many precious moments and conversations with friends on both sides of the ocean and also another year of God pursuing me, guiding me, and shaping me.
I'm not the same person I was this time last year. I've grown. I know it and I feel it and I thank God for it! No, I wouldn't trade that for anything. And now I look forward...
This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls."