February 4, 2010
Reflections in the new year
I can’t believe its 2010. Is it twenty-ten, two thousand ten, oh-ten, twenty-one-oh? Ah, who gives a damn. By now, I was sure that cars would be flying or at the very least, driving themselves. I thought phones and communication would be holographic, but the closest thing to have a holographic cell phone is my iPhone. I also thought I would’ve made my first million by now, but I am nowhere near that. I am not married, I don’t have kids, and I am still about 65 countries short of having visited my goal of 100 countries by 30. I still have a few years, but 65 countries is a lot to travel in the next 3 years before I hit the ripe young age of 30. The average life expectancy is now around 77 years old, the US is no longer the dominant superpower, and we have a black, well, half-black president. We have lost even greater faith in leadership, our economic strength that was once the thing we found our security in as Americans has failed us, and we are in a time when the class lines (for the developed world at least) have been so blurred that you can live like the wealthy do on the bank’s dime. A lot has changed in the last ten years.
I think of all the change that goes on, the shifting perspectives, the dominant paradigms, the major concerns, and I find myself enjoying the peace of having a constant that through it all, doesn’t rest on my own faulty abilities, but on the abilities of something that has been steady, consistent, and good throughout all of history. It doesn’t take an idiot to see that the world and everything the world puts their hope in changes from minute to minute, eventually leading to a frustration that deduces that “the only thing I can count on is ME!” I think its only natural. After all, we can’t control anything or anyone except ourselves and in order to live life fully engaged is to live life in the areas that we do not have full control. My hope is that I can keep reminding myself that the faulty belief of thinking that I can trust in my ability to control, or losing hope all together isn’t the only way to live.
There is a God I know that regardless of where you stand in life, is calling you to be fully accepted by Him in His care. This God says to you not to fret or worry because at the end of the day, the things you worry about don’t matter so much. The thing He wants you to know is that you are fully accepted in your messed up, perfectionistic, complex, confused, malicious, attention seeking, prideful, and insecure ways. This acceptance is an acceptance that we often feel in moments of perfect peace when we know that everything is going to be ok when it appears that the $#it has hit the fan. You know those times, like when you fell off your bike as a child and scratched you knees when you melt like butter in the arms of your parent as they hold you so protectively in their arms telling you that what seems to be terrible isn’t so bad at all and things will definitely get better. There is a God I know that is constantly saying this and calling each of us into His arms when we feel like scraping our knees, scratching our bike, or getting our bike stolen is the worst thing in the world and reminding us that the only thing that matters is that we are loved.
This has been a great year and I look forward to the rest of it!
