Looking to 2019

It must be miserable to live with one’s emotions being driven by the political scene or material well-being or even human relationships.  So many people in this world….even in our country….are suffering.  Some of that is needless.

Do I like every decision that our president has made…no.  Do I approve of everything congress has done…no.  Am I concerned about the “hot spots” in the world that could flare up into open conflict…sure…but I refuse to obsess over any of these.

Do I feel badly about children going hungry…yes….but I recognize I can only do what I can do.  I will try to be responsive to the needs that God puts in front of me.

Are there frightening possibilities beyond my control?  Well, let’s see…there are volcanoes and earthquakes and tornadoes and ice storms, and absolutely nothing I can do about any of them.  There are crazy people running around with guns.  Will I encounter one of them?

Not everyone likes me.  I have been gossiped about.  I have been left out of things I would have enjoyed attending.  As I have aged, certain of my prior skills have been diminished to the point that I can no longer do those things I once enjoyed.  Gee…maybe I should let myself sink into a slough of despond over no longer being included in these joyful activities.

Wait!  There are people in this world right now who are actually suffering!  There are Christians in countries where great oppression occurs daily.  Some are physically in danger.  They may be tortured or killed.  There are people all over the world…even some I know...suffering with disease that inflicts physical and emotional pain.  How dare I have a pity party? 

A new year is coming.  What will it bring?  I have no clue, but if I go on living, it can be guaranteed that some of what happens in 2019 will be “good” and some of it will be “bad.”  That is, by human standards some things will bring me joy and others will bring me grief.  But God is good all the time, and it is his intent to mold me into the person He wants me to be.  I will not be a lump of clay yelling at the potter, because I don’t like the way he is shaping me.  It is my intent to embrace the pain of being alive.

The outward man does indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward man receives fresh strength.  These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain.  For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible.  The visible things are transitory; it is the invisible things that are really permanent. 

(from II Corinthians chapter 4, Phillips translation)