New Year 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR! How does it feel when people give you that greeting? I imagine it feels like salt in a fresh wound. It’s ok that they are thinking of you and are wishing you well in this now new year. But “HAPPY”?? I imagine you may be feeling like that is not your state of being and never will be.

Did you know that we as people can know Joy, without being happy? Joy is something that’s deep in the roots of our heart. Joy is a sense that things are in good hands and that good will come. Certainly this sense of joy is part of a Christian’s outlook on life. Happiness is a sense of lightheartedness and contentment. Happy is laughter. A grieving parent does not have to be “happy” to be “joyful” because we know God is in control and He is good and He has prepared a place for each of us in His house - called “Heaven.” Good will come, for sure, because it rests in the character of God.

As Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, keep your focus on what is eternal and the renewal will come:

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. II Coirinthians 4:16b-18

So I don’t wish you “happy” New Year.

I wish you a blessed year, 2013.

I wish and pray for you restoration and healing in this new year.

I pray God’s hand in your life bringing new joy to your heart.

Blessings to you in 2013.