Closing the Year

2011. Gosh, I remember beginning this year just 12 short months ago, and here it is, the end. In two hours, 2011 will be finished and 2012 will begin. My head shakes at the swift passage of time! I turned 39 this year, so maybe I am just starting to speaking like a codger, haha! I think I am ready to close this year out and start the next one.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as the quote goes. It’s fairly well-known that I am a bit of a planner. It’s funny when I look back and see what plans I had and what I actually accomplished. It is also fairly well-known that I love lists (thank you Mom) and I am really big on using my white boards. Love those.

• I finished (99%) the apartment and moved in. That was a big one and I am loving it. Still have a few little things to finish up and that will come soon.
• Troy the Toyota joined the illustrious ranks of the bearer of the name Wonderbox.
• Dave and Liz moved back to Elkhart!
• Justice Stark was born. This was not on my list (I think it was on Corey & Meredith’s!), but it was such a blessing that I can’t help but mention it!
• I celebrated 10 years of doing this blogging thing.
• We lost some amazing men. Ken Neilson – a passionate worshipper and lover of his family unexpectedly went into a coma and his family and church family warred over him for 12 days before he went home to be with Jesus. David Norris – a quiet man of such strength and a lover of Jesus. Bill Thompson  – a faithful intercessor, who despite his illness stood on the wall day after day. Turns out that Bill was quite a photographer and his twin brother blessed me with the honor of Bill’s tripod.
• They finally captured Osama bin Laden.
• Did a whole bunch of 4wheeling this year. Made some trails, got all muddy. All in all, some great times with the boys!
• Said goodbye to Dad with Matt, Sara, Christine and others in the family when we scattered his ashes. This was a final honoring of his wishes and it was a privilege to be able to do so. It was surreal and emotional and reflectional and about every other imaginable descriptive word for doing something like this.
• Got to visit my sister’s new house and go exploring in her woods and hang out with mom, gram, matt, jake and the kids and shoot some guns and have an all around good time.
• Had some amazing drives, spent so much time at the beach, walking the dunes, seeing amazing sunsets and taking the SeaDoo to several lakes. Even did some more waterskiing this year on a new lake we started going to .
• Got to show the whole Blessed Life Series at Voice. So excited that people were able to see this powerful video series. It really changed the way I think about tithing and giving.
• Read the CS Lewis Space Trilogy. Had that one on my list for a while and finally got to finish it. It had been since like 7th or 8th grade since I read them.
• Had a lot of struggles this year with the ministry. It was an uncertain year and probably one of the more difficult ones financially. The Lord is good and our needs are met, but it was a tough year.
• Did a whole bunch of Geocaching.
• Did not do as much reading or writing as I hoped. This needs to change.

There were so many moments, those times where we feel so connected  to the world, to those around us, to the Lord, and I cherish those moments. So the year ahead… 2012. Not sure what it will hold. I think … a year of change. And not because of some weirdy superstitious Mayan calendar fail or something, but I just feel that significant things will happen this year.

What I do know for certain is this: “God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.” — Colossians 1:14-20

This is my hope.