Monday Morning Devotion-December 29, 2015

Only God-2015

This is what the Lord says, "stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

      The Lovely Susette and I recently celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary.  The card I gave her (along with flowers of course) showed Snoopy, from the Peanuts cartoons) sitting on top of his doghouse with his typewriter. 

            He begins typing, "Once upon a time." Then, you open the card and his next words are "happily ever after."  And in parentheses (to make a long story short.)

            That is certainly apropos as we come to the end of another year.  I recall last year at this time looking forward to the coming New Year.  We all have great optimism that the New Year will be the best ever.  We look forward to prosperity, good times, minimal troubles and happily ever after. 

            If the year coming to an end has been exceptionally good we may spend some time reminiscing, looking back on the fun times and special occasions.  It is often good to remember where we were at the beginning of the year in various stages of our life and compare it to where we are now.  Then, think where we want to be at this time next year.

            As we look ahead to the New Year seldom is their one clear-cut path to follow that will lead to prosperity and happiness.  There will surely be dips, and bumps and curves and slow zones whereas we want to zip along a straight and well-defined, well-paved, easily negotiated highway. Surely there is a pot-of-gold at the end of that road and we want to get there as quickly as possible.

            But at this point our 2015 path is uncertain.  Oswald Chambers says, "To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth.  This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation."

            OK, so that is what we are guaranteed for the New Year---uncertainty.  You may be thinking that ain't so good.  I would like to be certain of where I am going.

Maybe you feel sure that you know where you are headed and pretty sure where you will end up.  I hope that works out for you.  It may, but even if it does chances are it probably not be along the very path you expected it to take.

            It is pretty much guaranteed that you will have some adversity along the way.  Think back now.  Have you ever been through a year with no adversity involved, every thing was smooth sailing?  You have?  Wow.  What's the old saying?  "Liar, Liar, pants are on fire."  Not to demean your good feelings but often life is hard, but then God intervenes, whether we acknowledge His intervention or not.

            But, truthfully, adversity can be a really good thing.  As Mark Batterson writes, "I'm convinced that the people God uses the most are often the people who have experienced the most adversity.  It's not what I want to write and not what you want to read, but it's true.  Adversity can produce an increased capacity to serve God."

            Beginning another year is an appropriate time for planning.  This may take the form of New Years Resolutions, many of which look good on paper in January 1, but have been broken or deserted by January 31.

            But that is no reason to not plan.  TLS had a tradition for awhile where on New Year's morning we would write a letter to ourselves to be opened and shared with each other. In them we would basically predict things that would happen during the year and write the letter on Jan. 1 as if they had already happened. 

Then we would see how close to the truth we had been and how far off we might be as well.  That way we could think about how we felt about certain things a year earlier and assess where they got off track or how they came about.

            We stopped that after a particular-grief-stricken year.  We still have not read those letters written on the first day of that year.  Have not been able to.  Didn't want to revisit the family deaths of that year.  Although several years have passed now, and to a lesser degree we still grieve, we don't want to open those old wounds. So the letters from that year remain sealed.

            This year we have something new to share. I mentioned Mark Batterson before, the Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.  In his book the "Circle Maker" he talks about the value of making a Life Goal List.  He says "the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory," so he encourages us to write down these goals.  That's what TLS and I are doing and will share them on this New Year's morning.

            Some of these may take years to accomplish, some may get done this year and some we may have to visit and revisit and revisit.  Batterson encourages us to "Dream Big, Think Long and Pray Hard." 

            Scripture says "without a vision the people perish,"  Batterson rephrases it,  "With a vision the people prosper."

            You will come to crossroads in 2015. If you have sought the ancient paths for wisdom and included God in your plan you are destined to succeed.

            The reason for that is "Only God."  Some miraculous things will happen this year when you consider "Only God-2015."

Monday Prayer:  Thank you Lord bringing us safely through 2014.  We look forward to the adventure that will be 2015 as we consider "only God" first in every decision.  Amen!

***Author's note:  Happy New Year! Hope 2015 is the best ever for you.  BTW Mark Batterson's Ten Steps to Goal Setting and his own personal Life Goal List can be found on pages 181-92 in "The Circle Maker."