Welcome aboard the good ship 2020...your Captain promises you high seas adventure, fun, mysteries, and more. There are plenty of dining options for you, depending on what appeals to your particular pallet. Now settle in and enjoy the ride!
What do you think of when you think of taking a cruise? If you have enjoyed one, your thoughts are probably now thinking of all the wonderful experiences you shared with loved ones--the romance, the food, the beauty, the warmth and sunshine, the pure rest and relaxation in sand and water, or the music and dancing, concerts, and entertainers. This whole trip is all about YOU! Pampered and puffed, relaxing and romantic--every desire realized and every hunger, fed.
By now you realize that the new year ahead (2020) is quite obviously going to be the very fulfillment of this description, right? Our little patch of heaven on earth, right?
We wish!
Reality check! Life is not a hedonistic cruise, designed for our pleasure. Some years seem to be more like survival camp, as we are challenged to trust God through tough trials--Love turned sour, life turned upside down with tragedies and unexpected circumstances, loss and languor. The Scriptures tell us that God is not above putting us through boot camp in order to transform us into the soldier He desires us to be, to accomplish the work He has for us to do,that He might do what is necessary to call the sheep He loves to Himself. He desires our vision to be turned outward to those outside the camp. Jesus modeled it for us and prayed for us in John 17.
13Â But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14Â I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15Â I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16Â They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Â Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18Â As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19Â For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Full joy doesn't come from a cruise through life, as the world envisions. The world hates us if we are living out His Word, but we are kept by Him from the evil one. Our vision comes from being set apart by His Word. You are on a mission, established by Him. Get in the Word in 2020 and find your vision to be 20-20! Whatever you face in this new year and decade, find your thoughts about it shaped by the Word. Find your Divine help and strategy through the Spirit and the Word. Encourage one another in the Word. Find a church where you can love and be loved. Though only God knows what is ahead in this next trip around the sun, come aboard and fix your eyes upon the Son! The joy of Jesus made full in us through the Spirit and the Word! Joyful New Year to us all!