Cornerstone Church

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Happy New Year, Cornerstone!

Dear Cornerstone Family,

Eight years ago I wrote this as the year was ending:

“Everybody has difficult years, but sometimes the difficult years end up setting the stage for the greatest years of your life. Close out the year gratefully, in forgiveness and hope. Who knows? The biggest miracle of your life may be ahead of you, and you will end up seeing it could never have been without the difficult experiences of the past year.”

I don’t actually recall what difficulties I or the church or culture had been facing at that time. But I have lived long enough to know that challenges and difficulties are a constant in life. Several more years over the last eight have held challenges memorable enough that I will never be unable to recall what was going on in 2012. Of course, just as it has been for all of us, 2020 is certainly one of them. We have seemed to have control over very little, changes happened every day, often contradicting the one just past. Everyone has experienced novel struggles.

But I also have lived long enough to know that what I wrote back then is solid truth. Like Joseph, the guy with the coat of many colors that dressed him up to receive rejection from his brothers - then other connected injustices falling in order like dominoes - we have choices when life is hard. We can choose to resent, withdraw, justify our own wrongs, try to even the score—OR we can choose forgiveness and hope. Joseph did and he found that his troubles had prepared him for a life more amazing than he could ever have experienced without the strength and wisdom he gained from his difficulties. It wasn’t automatic. He had to keep choosing forgiveness and hope, and as he did he built the bridge that new relationships and God’s own miracles could walk over.

How about you and I do the same? Start with gratitude. Acknowledge the good things God has done. We are still here. We have another chance. Despite the heartaches and hard times, we have experienced much good. As long as we are still living and cooperating with God, miracles can still happen. Forgiveness sets us free, regardless of what those who have hurt us do. Hope gives us a reason to get up every day. Close out this year with gratitude, forgiveness, and hope. In 2021, anything can happen. Any prayer can get answered. The first miracle could and should be your free heart, filled with anticipation.

Work with God. Let it be so.

Believing this for you and me!