Goodbye 2008

Wow, how time flies. Seems like a couple days ago we were entering the year of our Lord 2008, and now we're heading out of it. A year of change, a year of surprises, a year of joy, of hurt, of fun, of pain. In short- a year like every other year.

What did you do in 2008 that made it different than any other year?

Did you donate your time to helping someone? Did you go on a mission trip? Did you increase your stewardship time to your local church? Change jobs? Lose your job? Make it a point to rejoice in God each and every day? Or was it just another year like every other... trying to get ahead (in world terms), or perhaps forgetting about family responsibilities and worrying about ol' number one.

As we reflect back over the last 12 months are we satisfied with all we've done? Could we have done it better? What mistakes, now in hindsight, might we have avoided? And what things did we intentionally do that we knew were wrong before we did them? Are we sorry, or do we figure we got away with it because no one knows about it.

WRONG! There's always the One who knows. And it's to Him that we need to apologize, along with anyone we've hurt along the way. Forgiveness- hard to do and often harder to ask for. Yet if we don't truly repent there can be no forgiving.

So, as we enter 2009 let me ask you- what do you need to do so you can greet the new year with a clean slate?

Happy New Year.
Maranatha.