Happy New Year!

I'm new to this whole blogging business, but even an amateur like me knows that the new day of a new year requires some sort of comment.

I suppose one option would be to review 2007. I could choose the ten best moments (things like the trip to Italy, standing up in Andrew's wedding, etc.). I could review the ten most difficult moments (things like all the interviews in Minneapolis, the break-up, the decision not to take the call to Central, challenges at work). 2007 was a difficult year. Yet, as I look back, the challenges take on a new shape and seem to have prepared me for good things to come in 2008.

I cannot stand the expression "everything happens for a reason." I dislike the phrase primarily because it is often used as a way to avoid someone's pain. Faced with another's crisis or grief, we are tempted to opt out of truly entering into their pain by minimizing it with expressions like, "well, everything happens for a reason." Pastorally I avoid this expression like the plague. And yet, as I look back at the year that was and look ahead to the year that will be, I find myself wondering if maybe, just maybe, just this once, it might be true that everything happened for a reason -- or, at least, that everything worked together for good.

Without getting into details, as I look forward to 2008, I believe that my life is about to take some unexpected and delightful turns. On January 1 of 2007 I could not have seen the difficult things that the next 12 months were going to bring; I also never could have anticipated how all of those things would work together to create a new, better future. And while I'm still not quite ready to say that everything in 2007 happened for a reason, I do hope that in 2008 I will be more likely to have faith in the midst of uncertainty and trust in the unfolding future. To quote the one cliche I am willing to use, "we don't know what the future will hold, but we know who holds the future."

Happy New Year! May it be a year of blessing and grace and learning and love for us all.