“We men of earth,
who grow old together as the hours and the days pass us by, find ourselves again at that season which marks the year’s
ending and the year’s beginning. With mingled feelings we watch the deeds
and thoughts of another cycle of days become part of the record of the past….The year has been made to close that men
may, in a measure, bury and leave with the past the error of their lives….The future belongs to tomorrow. The past belongs to the realm of things that never return, but today we live, and today becomes an indelible
part of us tomorrow.”
Richard Evans. Unto the Hills
Chalet
L’Abri, January 2005…
Measuring My Days…..acg
As this new year begins the world is
in shock with the growing exponential number of deaths from the greatest disaster in my lifetime – a tsunami that has
claimed the lives that some estimate to be a half million people. Red Cross officials
believe another five million people were made homeless. In the face of
all of this, there is much of earnest searching as to meaning and purpose and certainties.
In so great a part of Southeast Asia I have witnessed reliance on many gods with the belief that life here is all there
is and all that matters. But the greatest significance comes to those with the
assurance that the Master of mankind has a blueprint for all that happens, that life for believers is everlasting, that whatever
we are we shall take with us into eternity. This is the assurance for all who
claim the promises of our Lord and Savior, of Jesus the Christ, who rose from the tomb, and opened the way to eternal life. And as men seek for answers to the fate and destiny of those less fortunate, they
will find them given by the Administrator of the universe, and discover the wisdom that there is purpose and meaning for everything
that happens under the sun.
Sub-freezing days have given way to almost balmy weather here midwinter at Piney Mountain with temperatures in the
sixties and seventies. Grass seed sown this late November has germinated and
tinted my front lawn with vibrant green. Nearby sprout the tips of crocus and daffodils. So simple a sign
of life as these speak a special benediction to me of all that is good and blessed as this new year begins.
“This is the time for courage,
and for faith that, despite changing scenes and uncertainties, there are great, eternal certainties, great eternal truths; for faith in the mercy and justice and goodness of the Lord God who gave us life,
and who gave it glorious meaning – and who gives us strength to see it through, with joy and purpose here, and with
limitless and everlasting possibilities, if we will take it on His terms, and do the best we can with what we have –
with faith, and with the kind of courage that accepts both certainties and uncertainties as they come – with gratitude
for what we can count on, and faith for what we can’t count on.”
Richard L. Evans, The Everlasting Things
