Out with the Old and in with the New

So, it's the time of year when everyone waxes eloquent about the previous year's trials and accomplishments, and begins to dream and wonder about the coming year's possibilities. It is certainly a good thing to take time to assess our lives from time to time and if these next few days afford the opportunity, well that's just fine. 

I'm finding myself less interested this year in the exercise and I don't think it is really cynicism that's the cause. I just look back at the past year and realize a bit more that so little of the control of my own destiny is in my power. That's not really a complaint. The past year is full of favorable and unfavorable events that I have both handled and mishandled. In the midst of the year's history - the circumstances of which I had hoped to shape with my own hands - I have felt more than ever another hand reaching back and shaping me. It is an experience at times painful and at other times exalting, but almost always mysterious.

I have no intention to become a passive observer, only to learn from this year that I could be a more attentive student, hoping in a God more active than I knew before. I will make my plans, set my sails, aim for the mark, and then see if anything is left when the Refiner tests them with His fire.