The year is officially in progress. The Bowl Games are coming to a close. The college players are declaring their desire to enter the NFL Draft. Others remain for their fifth year of eligibility.
The Wild Card games in professional football begin Saturday, and it will be one and done for some teams. Rabid fans await their team's victories while others project their hopes for the next season.
In the meantime life churns. Forward. Backward. Never standing still. Fortunate. Unfortunate. Tragedies. Sorrows. Triumphs. Joys.
Much of what we do determines our joys and sorrows. Some things come to us like hard punches to the solar plexus.
Love expands or goes on hiatus. We cannot manufacture the Love of God, but we persist in our efforts to live and provide it as our Lord would have us do.
Hatred explodes all over the globe. Fueled by evil, celebrated by demonic activity, wicked people appear in all walks and areas of life sowing their ugly ideas and fomenting their detestable language and ways.
Christians face more and more opposition and prejudice because they speak of sin and because of their citing the bible which states Jesus is the only avenue to His Father and heaven.
Some people of faith curse others and disgrace the Name of the Lord, showing neither His love for people nor His divine undeserved grace, unaware of how they receive it yet fail to extend it to others.
Resolutions, goals, projects, and desires are formulated with care and determination and fail with disappointment and embarrassment in a matter of days.
None of it this is new, yet the New Year brings the hope that some of the misery will not prevail. That right will have its day for another season and wrong will be crushed and overcome. That God will raise up his faithful ones to fight the good fight and bring a reckoning to the evildoers.
Yes, all this on day two . . .
Father, raise up your army for a season. Help us to do what you have for us to do. We're desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.