I’ve read the laments, I’ve heard them, I’ve spoken them myself….many times. Categorical comments about the year behind us. Hard, tough, glad it’s over. We take 365 individual days and put one label on them…. and more often than not it leans toward the negative.
I just returned from a trip. 3000 miles in the car. “How was your trip?” my first go to was the 200 miles we drove in a crazy winter storm. Less than 10% of our travel time… less than 1% or the time we were gone… that was my focus. I lead with that? Wow.
Trauma and drama trump blessings and good times. Why?
I had an amazing friend. I really only knew her as she was dying of cancer. For 2 years she consistently lived trauma and drama 90% of the time. But she was one of the happiest people I knew. Why?
I have some friends…. 4 kids of their own packed into an already not so huge house. Through a series of what appears to be unfortuate, sad, hard, dramatic and traumatic events they took on an additional 4 kids. I sat at their table for a brief moment this Christmas and listened to this family of 10 make beautiful music. Wow!
I was looking for a particular phrase in the Bible, “Behold, look at what the Lord has done” and found Psalm 118:23 “This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” I love it…. this event… this trip… this hard day… this hard week. Is it all marvelous? All you have to do is look at the very next verse and I think you will find the key.
Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” How did my dying friend remain happy? How does a packed house remain joyful? How do I get to the end of a trip or the end of 2016 and not let it be defined by the storm? Here it is… the 1 way.
- REJOICE. It would be impossible to categorically label any year bad when there had been 365 days of glad.
Did my friend have hard days? Oh yeah… every single one of them. Does the family of 10 have their moments…. oh yes, you can be sure of that. But they know the secret… that the Lord made every day, every hour, every minute, every second. They do the 1 thing… they only thing…. that will make this a “glad” new year…. Rejoice!
So, 3 days into 2016. How are you doing with that Rejoice thing? How am I doing? This is the day, the hour, the minute, the second, that the Lord has made…. I will rejoice and be glad. I pray at the end of this year we will be saying “Behold, look at what the Lord has done” or even better “This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”
Read the rest of Psalm 118 if you have a minute. Glad New Year!