January 1, 2007 - Happy New Year!

The first day of a new year seems like the perfect time to begin blogging, so here I go. Might as well start with some reflections on the old and new years.

I can't pretend that I am sorry to see the old year go. I think of it as a "bad year." In reality, 2006 was just like life in microcosm--great highs and great lows, punctuated by a lot of nondescript times. So although I'm not sentimental about its passing, I am certainly grateful to God for the good things of 2006, and for the growth that the good and the bad produced in my life.

When I look forward into 2007, I see challenges. Some of these will be thrust upon us by by life and world events, some offered to us by God to accept or reject.

In regard to this first type, I enter the new year with a subtle and unusual sense foreboding regarding events on the world stage. I have a strong sense of history, and usually look at trouble in the world with the attitude that the world has survived many crises and that "this, too, shall pass." But this year, I just sense that we may see some natural and/or geo-political troubles of an in-your-face nature that will shake us and force us to deal with them very directly. Right now, most Americans seem to be in denial about the threats we face from radical Islam, for example. More on that later. Suffice it to say that we need a wake-up call, and I pray that it our dullness won't necessitate another 9/11, or worse, to make us see reality. I just feel that we need to, as the Bible says, be sober, vigilant and gird our minds for action in the year ahead.

That brings me to the second type of challenge mentioned above, the one put to us by God. For weeks now, I've been feeling strongly that God wants to pour out on his people fresh grace and favor for three things in particular: physical healing; financial and material provision for the things he's called us to do, individually and as the church; and overcoming spiritual, mental, and material obstacles to achieving those things that we know we are called to do, but haven't been able to do in the past. This applies to both life accomplishments and character deficiencies and sin patterns. The challenge lies in whether we will take what He is offering to us. It's as if He is saying, "If you will just put your toe in the water in faith, I will part the waters of your Red Sea, and you will pass through it with ease." This may sound cliche, but it's a fresh thing, in which the proverbial "faith as a grain of mustard seed" will truly move the mountains in our lives, our churches, and even our nation. God not only will respond to our faith, He is eager respond to our faith in a big way. He's not asking for much, just faith evidenced by a small step in the direction of our dreams and toward engagement of our foes.

So if we meet the scary and difficult challenges that the world thrusts upon us by taking up the wonderful challenge that God is offering us, 2007 has the potential to be our finest hour. God is giving us a special window of opportunity to overcome with a divine ease, by grace through faith, our personal demons and gain forward momentum toward our God-given goals, as individuals and as the church. For our nation and its difficulties, this is a chance for the church to carry a torch of faith, courage and resolve for our fellow citizens and the world to follow. As the old hymn says, "Let courage rise with danger."

Am I looking forward to 2007? Absolutely. It may not be our easiest year ever, but it can certainly be our most glorious. How wonderful it will be, on January 1, 2008, to look back and thank God for all He has done in and through us, and to lay our victories at His feet.