This finished product turned out, in many ways, very differently than I had intended.  Originally, I had set out to write of my hardships during the past year (of which I've had my share, although I've had much more than my fair share of blessings, too) and how the next year would surely be better because, well, it just had to be.  Better luck and better things would come my way.  This is a recurring theme commonly expounded among most of the “New Year’s Resolutions” I’ve read.  I meant to write about how much I was looking forward to 2007 as a year free of all of those complications, but the idea changed drastically since it was first conceived a week or so ago.

I just finished reading Johnny Cash’s The Man in White, a fictional account of the conversion of the Apostle Paul.  Paul, of course, was the former zealous Pharisee who ruthlessly and mercilessly persecuted the earliest Christians before being met with a vision of Jesus Christ along the road to Damascus, an experience which transformed him into one of the Lord’s most significant and effectual Apostles.  Cash writes in his introduction that his motivation for writing the novel stems from the connection he feels with Paul because of the Apostle’s struggle with a “thorn in the flesh.”  The story of Paul’s dramatic turnaround and redemption strikes a universal chord, especially with those of us who were formerly hostile to the Christian worldview, because if we’re truly honest with ourselves, most of us can identify with his defiance.  In his epistle to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote that he had repeatedly pleaded with Jesus to remove the “thorn” from his side, but that the Lord had told him that Christ’s strength was “made perfect” in Paul’s weakness (2 Cor 12:9).  Paul understood that the love of God was real and that love is the most powerful force the universe has ever known, and although he may not have fully understood at the time what Jesus meant, he accepted it as truth.  Most of us know about Johnny Cash’s drug addiction, the “thorn” with which he himself struggled for much of his life, because it was something about which he was always open and honest.  He was likewise forthright about several other “thorns”:  his brother’s death at a young age, and his own health problems stemming from diabetes and a neurological disorder.  Cash understood that trying to conceal his own shortcomings would obscure from the view of others the favorable effects of grace on his own life; he understood that in hiding our pain we disallow ourselves from fully benefiting from grace.  John Carter Cash wrote of his father that “he accepted [his thorns] as his personal burden, something to rise above, something to sharpen his courage, to define purpose, and to help him remember to stay grateful for his blessings.”  It would be nearly impossible to say it more eloquently than that.  More and more, I recognize the myriad ways in which the things that cause me pain actually help me in the long run.  I’m realizing that the old saying is not just a benign platitude:  there actually exist silver linings to all dark clouds.

I am indeed confident that 2007 will be my best year yet, but not necessarily for any lack of hardship (for that’s virtually inevitable).  No, this next year of my life promises to be the best because of the lessons I’ve learned, the faith I’ve nurtured, and the strength I’ve gained through that faith, all of which have come as a result of the experiences gained through the hard times I've experienced over the past year, the “thorns in my flesh.”  These are thorns which in many ways I cherish, and wear like a badge, because that which does not break us only serves to temper our spirit.  Jesus never promised us a rose garden.  He never said that things would suddenly be easy after you make the choice to accept Him into your life.  He did promise, though, that He would be with us always, until the end of the world (Mt 28:20), lending His strength to us that we might carry on, and never be truly broken.  Let us not pray for an uncomplicated and trouble-free life; let us instead pray for the will to grow through times of privation, the wisdom to learn from misfortune, and the audacity to overcome adversity.

Pain is momentary, but grace is eternal.

May your new year be blessed with clear vision, courage and resolve.