I hope. . . wait a minute.

This very post is an illustration of its theme. Just moments ago I had completed my thoughts, which generally are recorded below. Read to the end for the punch.

At the close of 2005 I thought to myself, "Boy, I'm glad that year is over. I sure hope 2006 is better." And it wasn't. In fact, it was worse. Far worse.

Foolish me. I said much the same thing to myself following the struggles of 2006, and this last year was a train wreck.

I have abandoned the foolish practice of laying aside the previous year with gleeful relief and looking to the next year as a bright, shiny package of blessing. I have waded through too many personal and vocational struggles, and watched as friends and family have endured illness, injury, relocation and death (permanent relocation).

Don't get me wrong. I have in the last three years also experienced days of great blessing. But I have learned the lesson of Job's rebuking question.

"Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"

Life often presents experience in the form of non-identical twins - good and evil. Great joys and crushing defeats can happen within the moments of one another.

But I also have learned that much of the blessing of life emerges from the rubble of tragedy. God brings strength and peace and joy in the very face of our greatest moments of testing.

So I say, "Bring it on 2008! Give it your best shot! As God upholds me, this new year will be to His glory. I will stand strong by His might and wisdom." I look forward to '08, not because it will be better, but because God precedes me, indwells me, guards me, and guides me.

Now here is the funny thing. Just as I finished this post, feeling fairly good about its content and flow, I blocked the whole text to make a minor edit, and it disappeared. It was gone. It had not been saved anywhere. I was left staring at a blank editing box once again. I was exasperated. And then I had to laugh. God had allowed me to experience the very point of my rambling. The temporal never reigns over the eternal. Blogs and their posts may come and go, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. God holds next year. . . and every year.

Amen.