Welcome 2010

Five minutes into the new year and I was experiencing a first. I was actually 'toasting' something with a group of friends. We were 'toasting' the new year. You know the routine. We were supposed to go around the room and each person/family give a toast to the new year and everyone sip some champagne with each toast. The first toast went something like this. May 2010 be better than 2009. The second toast (with a slight variation) ended with may 2010 be better than 2009. The third toast (after skipping me due to the obvious "bad" year I had experienced) brought the same toast, "Here's to a better year than last." By now you get the picture. Everyone was thinking what a stinking year 2009 was and glad it was over. So with a slight pause someone chimed in for everyone, and said, "For all of us, may 2010 be better than last year." I must admit I was at a loss of what my impromptu "toast" was going to be.

Driving home a few minutes later found me pondering those past 20 minutes with the toast. Why was 2009 so bad? What happened during the year that made everyone glad it was over? In pondering this, the common thread to the answer to this question was difficult situations arose in which we would rather not have been a participant. Each family around the room had their own set of circumstances which made life difficult in one degree or another (and most had a crises thrown in to boot.) And so it was easy to let circumstances dictate our view of 2009.

By the time I arrived home I had a toast to offer the new year. "May 2010 be as good as the last year."

Let me explain my heart. In one sense 2009 was a "bummer" due to the death of my wife, Joyce. This experience does bring about pain and major readjustments to life. But in walking through 2009 and even the two prior years leading up to Joyce's death, there has been an incredible presence of the Lord and His peace upon us through those difficult times. The Lord did promise that He would never leave us. Indeed, I have found this to be so in such a very real way that I do not ever want to "miss" His presence again. I believe my 'awareness' of His incredible nearness only came through those difficult experiences. For me, 2009 was defined by His presence much more so than any year of my life. For this I am forever grateful. For this reason alone 2009 was the best year of my life.

Difficulties, hardships, crises - whatever you want to call them - serve at least two purposes. First, they reveal what is in our heart. Second they deepen our faith in what we truly believe. Without the difficulties, we remain ignorantly blissful and shallow. Some things can only be forged in tough situations. Difficulty, hardship, crisis - they all will visit us again in 2010. This is part of life. But they do not have to define our year or life. I choose to define my year by the presence of the Lord which brought peace, joy, even contentment in the midst of the difficulties and hardships faced.

So here's to 2010 - More difficulties, more of His presence, more of His grace, more of His character forged into my life!

Blessings