“Many of us know one another from before we became who we became.”
(Esther Dyson, Release 2.0, p. 18)

    This was my twentieth reunion with my college class. A good number of us returned. Twenty years is a long time. We were different, though in many ways very much the same. As I drove the four hours home that night, I thought of how dramatic just a few decisions twenty years ago altered my life. As my two children slept, I was powerfully shaken by the thought that they would soon be making similar decisions.

    I am thankful for my faith in a loving Father who “knit me together in my mother’s womb” and had a plan for the days of my existence “before one of them came to be.” [Psalm 139:13, 16] The decisions I have made have not been made alone. I have made them confident that God has led me by his Spirit (Gal. 5:18) and through his Spirit he is working what is best for my eternal well being (Romans 8:28).

I’m convinced that God leads and his grace provides and his Spirit empowers.

    This faith is important because the end of the year, our journey through mid life, and our life crises send us a not so gentle zephyr of doubt. Satan uses these bitter breezes to stir up longing for what might have been or what will never be. These forces are not easy to allay. I have seen them rip many marriages, families, lives, and futures apart.

    Thankfully I believe I am where God wants me to be, married to the one he led me to love, with the children he chose for me to influence, and in the ministry he made me to serve. But like any believer, Satan has tried to make me doubt by sending an occasional and not so gentle zephyr. Thankfully by God’s grace, my house has stood against the Adversary’s gale because I’m convinced that God leads and his grace provides and his Spirit empowers. Thankfully my life and future and family are his and he doesn't make mistakes.

    Before I became who I became, I was the same person I am now—I was, and am, God’s child. So Satan’s not so gentle zephyrs may rustle my sails, but my Captain holds the tiller and sets my course into a new year to live for his glory and by his grace. Care to join me in the journey? Then let’s not look back and wonder “what if” but look forward with expectation at what will be, offering all we have and are for his incomparable glory.