2008 + 1

20 years ago today I was in my mother's womb as she attended the 1989 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.



I feel that 2008 was a tough year for the world, but that is no surprise because every year is. However, for the United States, we are spoiled (conservative word), and for our standards this year was quite tumultuous. I find no value in recapping all the events which made it so, but if you aren't sure what I'm talking about, then stop being an ostrich.

Even for me personally, it was an up and down year. I ended my first year of college and started my second year. God allowed me to enter into something exceptional, and then showed me that I needed to grow some more and took me away from it. It's interesting though, anytime I really sit down and think about the year in relation to the rest of the world, it was overflowing with a grace and mercy that is too much for words. I look at Mumbai and Darfur and Zimbabwe and Gaza and a host of other places and wonder how in the world I could ever complain. I look at families that I met in Boone who live in real poverty and am disgusted with myself for taking so many things for granted. I look at my church in Boone which is spending 6 million dollars on a new building and find myself angry and perplexed that college students with no money are taking care of those impoverished people in the same town. I am even more upset with myself for living almost 20 years on Earth before I really felt any compassion towards those less fortunate than I. I look at how I have hurt people and crave their forgiveness. I am sorry that I and so many Christians have turned people away from Grace and Love.

But this is 2009. it is New.

I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.

So I say, "My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the Lord."

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:17-23