Things Will Be Great

I haven’t attempted to write a Christmas letter for the last few years because I just couldn’t think of what to write. A Christmas letter from the Dahlens was tradition – and I’m big on tradition. So to let it go was no small thing. Christmas letters are fun to write and to read when they are full of life and good things and blessings and progress. Much of the last three years or so, haven’t been that way for us. And who wants to read a letter full of illness and problems and struggles? Some people call Christmas letters “brag letters” and often they are –especially to those reading who seemingly have nothing to brag about. I find myself in that category once again this time around. I have nothing much to brag about in the natural. I did have a thought the other day though that might be worth sharing. Maybe from God’s viewpoint, the last three years for us have been the best of years – where He was able to accomplish inside of us something that would not have happened in any other way. You know “the worst of times, the best of times.” Sometimes I really believe that, when a surge of faith comes, as God seems unusually real in a prayer time or speaks profoundly through His Word or through a book or someone else. At other times, the difficulties of daily life seems to smother any sense of spiritual growth. I want to be a person who remains full of joy no matter the circumstances and I pray to that end. I’m not sure how to get there, but God is giving many opportunities to learn how.

Don't be mistaken. We have experienced wonderful blessings along the way. God has delivered us more than once from impossible situations. He has answered prayer time and time again.

And so, we come to the end of another year. I read in my journal the other day that at the beginning of it my slogan was “Things Will Be Great in 2008.” I really believed it and looked forward to God doing new and wonderful things. In reality, the kind of “greatness” I had anticipated did not come. However, I choose to believe that from God’s perspective, greatness did come in the form of changed hearts, growing faith, deeper trust.

Thank you, God, for a great year. Merry Christmas!