2022: The Year in Review

It’s time for me to write another post and reflect on the passing year. This post may not be as long as some that I’ve written, but here goes:

Budget Crunch

I’ll start out with the bad news: this was a tough year financially. Record-level inflation, increased costs of living, and high gas prices made things difficult (I’m sure many who are reading this can relate). But it was also one of those years where it seemed that anything that could break did (I’m talking about expensive stuff, like car engines and teeth).

This may come across as a complaint, but it isn’t intended that way. I want to look back at this blog post and remember God’s faithfulness and provisions. We are blessed!

School Days

Clark began attending pre-kindergarten a nearby school this year. He loves his teachers and classmates, and wants to get up and attend every morning. It’s yet another reminder that the time is flying by and he’s growing up.

First Day of School

School did seem to bring some extra sniffles and sneezes into our lives, but that’s OK, too–might as well let Clark build up his immunity.

Notable Books

I didn’t read quite as many books this year (something I need to change next year). Anyway, I did read Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. This book was kind of an autopsy of Western civilization. In other words, the author explained how we have reached such an absurd place in Western thought–a place where believing in objective biological realities about gender is now considered narrow-minded and bigoted. This book was helpful for cultural understanding but a bit difficult to slog through. I wish I had instead read Strange New World, Trueman’s newer book. I hear that it is updated and more readable (less academically oriented).

I also read James Snyder’s The Life of A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God. I’ve always loved Tozer’s writing, but I’ve never taken the time to learn much about his life. Snyder did a commendable job of describing both Tozer’s deep love for God and his flaws as a family man. Tozer was faithful to his wife, but he was emotionally distant as a husband and father. This shocked me and I’m still not sure how to wrap my mind around it (definitely another reason to avoid hero worship of one’s favorite preacher/author). Snyder was even-handed as a biographer: honest but not overly critical. I found this book to be very compelling and finished it quickly.

Church/Ministry

Some really good things happened in our church this year. Covid was no longer an issue (at least not in the way it has been) and we’ve had some new younger couples join our church. We also had a good friend of mine who is a pastor join our congregation. I’m thankful for these blessings! This was the first time in a couple of years that we’ve been able to return to a full ministry schedule (vacation Bible school, trunk or treat, etc.).

Trunk or Treat 2022

I finished preaching through Romans and I’m now preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. The more I study God’s word the more I find myself in awe of it!

Family

God continued to bless our family this year. We’ve enjoyed watching our son grow up, another year of marriage, and we’ve had opportunities to visit my family in Alabama. We came to celebrate dad’s birthday back in May and we are spending the holidays in Alabama as I write (first time since 2015).

Future

2023 has already thrown us one little curve ball: we will be celebrating the first couple of days of it here in Alabama instead of Texas. Our return flight was one of thousands that were cancelled by Southwest. That’s no big deal, especially considering that I wrote about God’s prerogative to change our plans.

I know 2023 will be full of challenges, opportunities, and changes. I’m looking forward to seeing what He does through all of these.

Happy New Year!

When God Wrecks Your Plans

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21

“How many of you know what it’s like to have God wreck your plans?”

I asked this question while preaching a couple of weeks ago. Several hands were raised, and even more smiled and nodded. This is one of those nearly universal Christian experiences. Our lives rarely go exactly the way we thought they would, and we find ourselves wrestling with God for answers–answers that He doesn’t always seem eager to give.

Let’s be honest: sometimes God wrecks our plans because we never included Him in the first place. Our plans were motivated by selfish ambition, foolish desires, or some other toxic source. Sometimes our faithful Father lovingly disrupts our lives in order to expose our idols and offer us an opportunity to repent. Hopefully we get the message and start over with godly priorities.

But this is not always the case. God reserves the right to do as He pleases, even with our best intentions. I can think of no better example than Paul’s itinerary, found in Romans 15.

I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

Romans 15:24-25

Paul had been preaching for around 25 years by the time he wrote Romans. He had planted churches in several of the urban centers on the eastern side of the Roman Empire. Paul now had his sights on Spain, the western edge of the Roman Empire.

His plan was to stop by Jerusalem to bring financial aid to the believers there (money he had collected from other churches). From there he would pass through Rome and spend some time with the church there before heading to Spain.

That was Paul’s plan. It was prayerfully created and energized by Paul’s ambition to preach Christ where His name had never been heard (Romans 15:20-21).

But God shipwrecked Paul’s plan–literally. He encountered hostile opposition in Jerusalem and was placed in Roman custody for his own protection. He appealed his case to Caesar before the Roman authorities. They granted his request and arranged for a sailboat to take him to Rome. The boat encountered a storm strong enough to crash it upon a reef. Paul and his fellow prisoners swam for their lives or rode planks to the shores of Malta.

Paul eventually made it to Rome, but his stay was not brief. He spent two years under house arrest, preaching and teaching those who came to visit him.

The events I’ve just described (recorded in Acts 21-28) were clearly not what Paul had in mind.

We don’t know, in fact, if Paul ever made it to Spain as he had planned. Here’s what we do know: Paul wrote the “prison letters” during this time of house arrest in Rome. These letters are recorded in our New Testament: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. These scriptures have blessed and instructed millions of believers–far beyond the geographical borders of Spain and long after the Roman Empire had fallen. God, as always, knew exactly what He was doing with His trusted servant.

This quote comes to mind:

God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.

-Oswald Chambers

Lord, teach us to trust in Your greater purpose–even when this requires You to change, disrupt, or even destroy our plans.