Reflections on 2008

Now that we have finished a full week of the new year, I have decided to blog about some of the events of the past year. It was a year full of change - both for our world and for me personally. It gaves us an election season that ushered in a leftist president and equally liberal congress, propangadized for and abetted by a MSM intent on demonizing anything right wing, conservative or evangelical Christian. We saw the collapse of the financial system along with the loss of our retirement and investment assets. Gasoline prices skyrocketed only to plunge to levels of a decade earlier. All of my favorite sports teams made it to the playoffs only to lose out on their championships. Even the Beijing Olympics were more frustrating to me for what didn't happen for the USA athletically (US Women's Softball, for example) and for being the showcase for a hardline communist regime than for the truimphs of Michael Phelps.

Personally, there were also a number of highs and lows. I became an aunt for the first time just a few months before my uncle died, my mother's only brother. While I was not particularly close to him recently, it still reminds me of how small my extended family is and how my only remaining relatives from her side of the family are all only cousins now. I realize how old my father is (83) and remember that his side of the family is not long for this world either. I became re-acquainted with an older cousin who has supplied some family history but there is so much more that is unknown than known about my ancestors. I have gone back to school for the first time in over 20 years while my education-loving roommate deferred starting her doctoral program for the whole year. I have stayed in the same job and same office but now have a new boss. One of my nemeses was finally exposed for being a cad while another one who seeks ill for my life has only partially been revealed (I must say that this one will probably suffer a similiar fate, perhaps this year - people who sow discord and attempt to rip others down in order to build themselves up emotionally or further themselves along in life, work or ministry tend to reap their own destruction. Since I know this particular evil one reads this blog, I must say to them, consider yourself warned. The Lord will repay you for what you are doing; no amount of self-justification by you will make your deeds right.)

Yet in the midst of this disappointment I have mentioned, I am more at peace than I've been in a long while. This is because I know that God is on the throne and in control. Those who do evil (to me or others in the world in general) will get theirs, either in this life or in the world to come. Those who follow Jesus closely will receive great reward in heaven one day. God is Judge and rules in righteousness. As I discover the reality of this truth and apply it to my life, I can have confidence even as the world goes crazy.