While I’m guessing most of you have probably heard and/or read the following words quite a few times over the past month or so, I do hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
But as far as what this next year will hold for all of us – both individually and collectively as families and communities and a country – only the Good Lord knows.
Honestly, it’s a tough call for me as to whether 2022 has been a good year for me or not. It has definitely been a year for changes, and those changes seem to keep on coming.
Of course, I’m hoping that the changes awaiting me in 2023 will be good ones – or, at least, have good results, more or less, when all is said and done.
But that’s not entirely in my hands. Like everyone else on this planet, I am subject to forces much bigger and stronger than I am, and I would be fooling myself to think that I can somehow control all outcomes through my own strength or intelligence or sheer force of will.
And like everyone else on this planet (whether they believe it or not), I get from day to day on God’s good mercy – and if He decides that a particular day will be my last on this side of the river, that’s His call, not mine.
But I do believe some things are up to me, and, to a certain extent, how 2023 turns out in my own personal story will be a reflection of my own personal choices.
For example, I can choose to treat people with dignity and respect and honesty – basically like I would want to be treated myself – or I can treat people like dirt or deceive them or use them for my own selfish purposes. That really is up to me.
And I can make all kinds of choices when it comes to my relationships and my work and how I spend my free time and my habits (both good and bad) and even what thoughts I allow to go running free inside my head.
And if (God willing) I make it to the end of 2023, I will probably look back and see that the year was a mixed bag of both things that I brought to the table and things that were beyond my control.
But, regardless of how things turn out, I hope I’ll have the wisdom and insight to see God’s hand in all of it – and maybe by then I’ll have a little better understanding of both who He is and who He created me to be.
In any case, I pray that God richly blesses you all in the coming New Year.
And please do the same for me as I embark on a new journey and put pen to paper on the next chapter of my story.
