A Look Back Yet with Hope

Today marks the end of a year filled with turbulence. It has been like flying in a plane at a high altitude and hitting a pocket of rough air. You remember being pitched around. Your stomach begins to quiver. You grip the arm rests of your seat a little tighter. And you pray a quick prayer...take that back, you pray a long prayer that you might survive. That pretty much describes 2008...only the turbulence just kept coming. There was no let up at all.

The housing market continued its downward slide with foreclosure rates reaching epidemic proportions. Those, fortunate enough to keep their homes, saw values plunge to record lows. And there seems to be no turn-around in sight. Wall Street, a bastion of supposed security and strength, was next to suffer a collapse. Institutions that had survived the Great Depression now closed their doors forever. In order to stay a total economic meltdown, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department infused billions of taxpayer dollars into banks and other lending institutions, and even bailed out an auto industry that was on life-supports. (Don't ask me how it will all be paid for...I won't live that long!)

And now the world teeters on the brink of war. Of course the focus is the Middle East. Even as I write this final blog for 2008, Israeli warplanes continue their aerial assault on Hamas rocket launching sites within the Gaza Strip. Most of the Arab world has remained uniquely silent, secretly hoping, at least in my opinion, that Hamas will be defeated. That would knock down Iran, the largest supporter of Hamas. Of course, the Saudis and the Egyptians and even the Jordanians cannot come out and say that they hope Israel will cause the Palestinian people to overthrow Hamas. And, in Ramallah, President Abbas is also hoping for the demise of Hamas so that he and the Palestinian Authority might reclaim that which was taken from them in 2006.

In just a few days, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Whether you voted for him or not, he is certainly going to need our prayers. His is an unenviable task. I can only hope that he and his family have enjoyed the past few days of vacation in Hawaii because it might be his last vacation for several years.

Looking back, 2008 was certainly a year for weather extremes. I just read that 2008 was one of the most deadly years, weather wise, ever recorded. Over 125,000 people died when a cyclone hit Bangladesh. Hurricane Ike certainly caused its share of grief and hardship along the Texas coast. Tornadoes occurred in record numbers. The Midwest suffered through floods of unprecedented proportions. And now record snowfall and cold have invaded much of the northern half of the United States.

I think, as most of us will look back upon 2008 in the years that lie ahead, most of our thoughts will have a negative bent. Yet, through it all I have still seen God at work. He is still directing this play according to the script which He wrote before He ever created this world. And, I believe the climax of this play is about to come. We are in the last act and, perhaps, even nearing the final scene. So there is still hope for us to cling to. Our confidence is not built upon an Obama Administration nor upon a Wall Street bailout. Our hope is not built upon an economic stimulus package nor upon a ceasefire in the Middle East. No, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. "On Christ the solid Rock I stand...and I hope you do as well...for all other ground...political, military, economic...is sinking sand."

May God bless your New Year with His presence and His power.