2016!

Milestones like a New Year can be troubling to me. There is so much to do in the new year. There is so much I did not get done last year. Etc.! I was challenged over the holidays to renew my prayer for joy and peace, for myself and for others.  Paraclete board member, Lori Wilson, and her husband, Kurt, gave me a book titled Abiding, by Ben Quash. He says that joy and peace are not only promised by Jesus. They are also built into the cosmos. 

Peace, and the joy that follows from it - these are things promised. But they are promised because they are ultimate. They are not just 'up ahead'; they are the deepest truths of the world, and have been ever since it was made, because they are part of the fullness of God who made the world good. By restoring perfect peace and complete joy to his followers, Jesus restores them to a relationship with their good beginnings as well as their good end...

May your 2016 be filled with reminders of your good beginning and your good end, resulting in overflowing peace and joy for you and yours!