I didn’t get the Christmas New Year card out. Maybe I’ll squeeze it into the “Hey, we’re only a few days in and you know, life so it’s still acceptable for you to receive this” window. Probably not.
I didn’t get the card out to tell everyone what a stupid, awesome, horrible, beautiful year we had. And I feel more compelled than I have in other years because this was a year. I mean, a damn year. This year earned her place in nostalgia – good and bad and ugly and lovely all swirling together in our memories.
This year we saw God so.close. So up in our business that we couldn’t separate holy from hell sometimes. So intimately grieving, so strongly comforting, so quickly answering… God is here. Always. And this year we saw it.
So how do I communicate that the year with all the crappy events is just precious to me? That the things that sting, the parts that bleed are becoming treasures – guiding me to the Love that covers, restores, heals, aches and hates this more than any of us? That along with the aching, there is joy and peace and hope while the world is burning down?
When I don’t totally understand what I’ve seen, but I can’t unsee it. When somehow I grieve deeper and hope higher at the same time.
How do I tell that story, share that news? Because oh my gosh, this Light. And oh how this world is ready to be swept up in it. And all around – in living rooms and global stages – we are feeling the burn of things not how they should be, but we are also seeing something marvelous happen, seeing something remarkable and glorious right there in the middle of all the worst.
Love is overcoming and he fights hard, he gets dirty, he takes hits, and he doesn’t quit. Love won’t relent. What will I remember from 2014? That Love is here. That we are not crossing our fingers for someone to show up, someone got there before us and is active in efforts to make everything okay.
So the card hasn’t gone out. And probably won’t because life, but ask me how this year was and I’ll do my best to relay the things that are beyond me, below me, around me, within me and totally un-me transforming-me.
Happy New Year.