2011 was a year for the books. In my household alone, we saw three job losses (two for my poor hubby, one for me), all due to lay-off, a new career launched, job searches (which are still going on), loss of a beloved pet, the addition of a newly beloved pet, health crises faced and survived…and the list goes on. Add to that the upheaval in the industry where I’ve worked for over 30 years, well, everywhere we turned this last year, it seemed something else was going wrong.
I don’t know what your 2011 has been, what challenges or joys you’ve experienced, but I know that many today, yours truly included, wonder where the next year will take us. Will there be total economic collapse in the US? Will we find ourselves in some kind of sci-fi life where we’re fighting for survival?
In the darkest moments, when fear gnawed at the edges of our lives, it was easy to feel as though God had, somehow, glanced away. That He’d blinked of an eternal eye, and in that moment the enemy surged.
Thank heaven feelings aren’t reality.
No matter what we face in our lives, this is TRUTH:
God is.
He is present. He is watching. He is in control. We may not understand what’s happening or why it’s happening, we may not be able to see, with our temporal eyes, how God is at work on our behalf, but none of that changes this immutable fact:
God is.
That truth has become the beacon that carries me safely over turbulent waters. It is the haven where I cease to struggle and agonize and I fall on my face before an all-powerful Creator. It is what sustains, uplifts, and empowers. It is, in a word, sufficient.
God is. I need not fear.
God is. I can rest in Him and His love for me.
God is. I can trust that His promises are true.
God is. When nothing else makes sense, when chaos has exploded around me, when I feel lost and abandoned…I hold to this anchor.
And there I find peace.
May this truth, and this peace, surround you in the coming year. And may 2012 be a year overflowing with God’s goodness not just for you and me, but for a weary world.
