Count On It

The Christmas Season is over and New Year’s Day is right around the corner. Soon we will start the countdown to 2020. Doesn’t that seem crazy? Wasn’t it only yesterday we were sure the world was ending because the new year was about to turn 2000? Yet, in the blink of an eye, 20 years have gone by.

So I’ve been thinking about what has happened in the world over the past 20 years and it seems like a lot has happened… and a lot has changed. But has anything really changed?

Twenty years ago, people were excited about computers and how they would make life so much easier for us. But if you ask me, people are working harder than ever. Twenty years ago, people were critical of the government and President Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives. Today it’s President Trump’s turn to be criticized and impeached. Twenty Years ago, the St. Louis Rams were in the Super Bowl and earlier this year, the Los Angeles Rams were in the Super Bowl. (Okay, a slight difference there.) Twenty years ago, Al Qaeda terrorists bombed the USS Cole. Today, terrorists are still a huge problem all over the world.

So, it would seem like nothing in the world has changed much in the past twenty years. But I bet if you look back at your own personal life, there has been some change. For me, I can’t even begin to count the number of things that have changed in my life! I went from being divorced to being happily remarried. I went from having one son, to having four children (and somehow now having six grandchildren). I went from owning a Lighting Maintenance Company to owning a Lighting Supply Company to now owning a company that sells parts to the Solar Industry. I went from having blonde hair and blue eyes to having gray hair and bad eyesight. (Bummer dude!) And I went from being a man focused on work and making money to a man focused on his faith, his family and his friends.

And that got me thinking… Maybe it’s not that my life has changed so much, maybe it’s just that through all the trials and tribulations of the past 20 years, I’ve managed to grow up just a little bit. There were lots of bumps in my road, problems with friends, financial failures, my wife being hospitalized, and the death of both of my parents. But like a molten tool on an anvil, perhaps God has been shaping me all along into the man he intended me to be when he planted me on this earth. I know if you look back at your own life, you’ve probably had your share of tough times as well. But as you remember the hard times, remember also that the one who is constantly shaping you, is also always loving you. Count on it!  

Things do not change. We change.

~ Henry David Thoreau