It’s only hours away from the New Year – 2011 – Two Thousand Eleven (or do you say, Twenty Eleven?) No matter how you say it, on December 31st, all over the world, people take this evening as a time to take stock, re-evaluate, look back on the year behind them and look forward to the year ahead. Still full of Christmas cheer and merriment, people are gentler and kinder as they greet each other – in their office elevators, on the street, and even on their favorite social network sites. (My Facebook News Feed is full of hearty salutations of good will and wishes for the New Year.)
I don’t go out on New Years Eve any more, so it usually is a night of quiet reflection (well, at least until my neighbors start shooting their guns in the air or popping off firecrackers – hey, I live in the South – nothing comes between Southerners, their guns and some good ole fireworks!). And in reflecting on this year, it has been a mixed bag of good things and bad. The year started off with layoffs on my job (I survived – Amen and Hallelujah) and ended with me receiving the first two copies of my published blogs in the mail. In between, I took a few trips, had some wonderful lunches, brunches and dinners with friends and family, counted my blessings (almost) every day and took countless pictures along the way. I witnessed the gathering of the world church here in my own city this summer, and grieved the loss of my grandmother in the last quarter of the year. Made some crucial and critical decisions about some relationships that were stagnant and unrewarding and met some new friends who were blessings disguised as people.
I don’t know what the year ahead holds. There will be joy (and sadness); happiness (and grief); weddings (and funerals); births (and deaths). There will be good days (and bad); sunny days (and rainy ones); days when the bank accounts balance will be fat and healthy (and days when my financial software spreadsheet will bleed red); days when I feel like me and God got this and everything is peachy keen fine; and days when the enemy of my soul will be sounding his evil cry of triumph because I will have done messed up one mo’ time again – and in reality, sometimes, that will happen in the very same day.
But even knowing all that – I look forward to 2011 and all the great and marvelous things inherent in a spanking brand new year. I claim, even now, my favorite Bible promise: “For I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord. They are plans for Good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). In other words, NO MATTER what 2011 holds, God is holding 2011 – and that is all good in my book.
Be blessed and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
© 2011 Kristina E. Smith
Friday, December 31, 2010
