Sunrise...Sunset.....

"You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance."

-Psalm 65:11

I am sitting here swaddled in my Snuggie, looking like the ghost of Christmas past (minus the creepy hood) attempting to squeeze something meaningful out of my calorically saturated cerebellum.  (I needed a catharsis after all the craziness of the holidays and decided that clearing out my fridge would satisfy said cleansing.  Except that it got cleared out onto my plate and let's just say that I put a pretty decent dent in the world's food supply tonight.)

So although I am feeling less than my usually contemplative self, it is, none-the-less, December 31st, the pause that takes place every New Years Eve, which cannot be rescheduled, despite all the desserts I've downed, and I feel compelled to compose something worthy of this window, this window in which we are supposed to take inventory of our lives to date, the time we're to take a look back, take a look forward, gather our gumption and set our trajectory into Two Thousand Ten!  It is a time of bidding adieu to the past and setting our sites on the year ahead, full of hope, full of vision, full of carby Christmas leftovers, full steam ahead!!! 

The problem being that when it comes to mapping out the future, I do, indeed, "see through a glass darkly", even when I'm not contending with a carb soaked cranium.  My vision is limited (despite the lofty title of my blog) and I find at times that I lack perception to successfully navigate through the next five minutes, much less the immediate future.  At times my inability to work out which end is up consitutes the need for nothing short of semaphore flags, smoke signals, signs in the heavens, something to base my bearings on...

...Enter the Good Shepherd.

(Now for all of you who were expecting me to launch into lengthy repartee about New Years Resolutions, I must disappoint you, as these 'beacons' have their limits and I want to talk about something much more far-reaching, a limitless Light to plot our path by...If you want to read about resolutions, you may do so in many other worthy blogs, or, if you prefer to stay put, in my first post ever, dated September 20th and titled, Another Time Around. Help yourself.)

I have found throughout my life thus far, that God's resolutions are much more reliable than my own.  The promises He makes to me are kept far more faithfully than the promises I make to myself.  The goals He's authored for my life have carried me farther than my own short-sighted ambitions ever would have.  And His Word, not my own, has been the compass that has carried me through days, weeks, months, and years.

So I wish you all a Happy New Year, and, I wish to leave off with this pedestrian prattling and any further conjecture on my part at this point, instead leaving you with the only Words worth navigating by, His own, the only true hope for the future. 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

-Proverbs 3:5,6

“All things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose."

-Romans 8:28

“I will never leave you, nor forsake you. See? I have carved you on the palm of My hand.”

-Isaiah 49:15,16

“Do not be afraid for I am with you; Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will hold you up with My righteous right hand.”

-Isaiah 41:10

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever."

 -Psalm 23