Here's To New Adventures...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
-- J R R Tolkien


Well, Christmas is over and as the new year is fast approaching, I find myself faced with another year of the unknown. Another year of potential sorrows, another year of potential joys, another year of potential defeats, another year of potential victories. As I think forward to the future, I am poignantly aware that I have no idea what is in store. There is nothing in my life that I can say will be the same a year from now with absolute certainty...except for one thing. My salvation. Another year of growing to be more like Christ (for He who began a good work us will bring in to completion), another year of experiencing God's sustaining grace, another year of knowing that Christ died for my sin, another year of learning to find my joy in God and not my circumstances, another year serving in the dearest place on earth (the local church), another year of knowing that even when I am faithless He is faithful, another year of trusting in the sovereignty of God, another year of seeking to grow in my knowledge of His word, another year of undisclosed adventures for His glory...Lord willing. These things are what lay ahead for us, as well as so much more! When I look to the future with eyes of faith and not in apprehension and worry, I have a peace and joy for the days to come. Not because I control them, but because I know my life rests secure in the hands of a sovereign God. My prayer is that I will walk faithfully this next year and honor God by displaying the kind of peace and joy that speaks of my ultimate trust in Him.

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."-Matthew 6:25-34