here a glimpse. there a glory...: Temporal pleasure. Eternal hope...

...and so another year begins. Resolutions have been made...some have probably already been broken. It's around this time of year that Ecclesiastes usually comes to my mind. As we begin to prepare to "usher out the old and ring in the new" the media stories are a rewind of the previous year's end: "Celebrities Who Died"..."Top 10 Stories of the Year"..."Eat All You Want Without Gaining an Ounce"..."Exercise Without Breaking a Sweat". Yada, yada, yada...it's all the same...every year. As the writer of Ecclesiastes said, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity...What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." (1:1, 9) It's pretty depressing.

I must admit I awoke on December 31st with a slightly heavy heart. The holidays had come and gone...and I wasn't ready to be finished with them, yet. Children and their spouses had come and gone...and I wasn't ready for them to leave, yet. The year had come and gone...and I wasn't ready to engage the challenge of remembering to write a new year's number on my checks, yet. My 46th year of living had come and gone...and I wasn't ready to be 47, yet.

As I sat down at our dining room table to talk to the Lord about my unreadiness to move on...the Holy Spirit brought these Chris Tomlin song lyrics to mind:

"How can I keep from singing Your praise?

How can I ever say enough, 'How amazing is Your love!'

How can I keep from shouting Your Name?

I know I am loved by the King and it makes my heart want to sing!"

Busted! Once again, I was bringing an ungrateful and complaining heart to God's throne of mercy and grace. Once again, He gently reminded me He's not terribly concerned with gifts that satisfy my flesh. He's given me the best gift...the eternal gift...to satisfy my soul. I had taken my eyes off of Jesus and forgotten the gospel. Thus, I was crashing and burning.

The next words I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me were: "Be joyful in hope."

Busted again! I was lacking joy because I was placing my hope in temporal pleasures. True joy is found in hope rooted in Christ...in the gospel. God encouraged me through His Word by reminding me:

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5: 1-2)

"The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the children of man...He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in You." (Psalm 33: 13, 15-22)

So...as I journey through 2010, my prayer is that I would, by His grace, be ever joyful in hope in the God of my salvation. As this prayer from Valley of Vision says,

"O LORD of grace...

May I never forget that Thou hast my heart in Thy hands.

Apply to it the merits of Christ's atoning blood whenever I sin.

Let thy mercies draw me to Thyself...

My soul is often a chariot without wheels,

clogged and hindered in sin's miry clay;

Mount it on eagle's wings and cause it to soar upward to Thyself!"

Amen...and amen!

Here are some pics of our family's Christmas fun. Enjoy!

Our den...which our children painted for me while we were in Texas. It used to be very, very, very dark paneling...truly cave-ish. It is now a gift that keeps on giving...every morning when I wake up! Awesome!