With ten minutes remaining until the New Year, I turned to the Word of God. I dwelled in a couple of vintage favorites from 2004: Psalm 100 and 139. In the last minutes, I settled in with Psalm 37, my beloved passage in Scripture where I first sensed God speaking directly to me sometime around '01 or '02.

The clocked ticked to zero as I read these verses...

Mark the blameless and behold the upright,
for there is a future for the man of peace.
But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
The Lord helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.

Psalm 37:37-40

...Happy New Year!

Twenty years ago on another New Year's Eve, it was a celebration. You see, on that night during the college years prior, there were just a string of forgettable college experiences. How empty was that life; how unfulfilling was that lie!

I did not know what is like to love God relationally. Oh, I had an archive of head knowledge—well, from a debilitating Arminian construct; but throw me into any Bible trivia night and I could come off the bench, coach! At 19, I even wore a WWJD necklace to my college classes.

Was I close to God?

What I had known was little more than a desire for the things of God, not a passion for my Beloved.

Was I saved?

One can go to church for many years, sing the songs, volunteer time and...well, all I really know is that experientially, I never knew God like I did at a Christian coffeehouse in the aftermath of Fall 2000 through 2001's transition. I moved from a corporate practice clutching fire insurance to a daily time at a rickety table with a bottomless mug of coffee for $1. Until then, I never knew what it was like to shed a tear out of my love for God.

I wrote more extensively about it here: My Conversion Story, but the above is the gist of it.

Twenty years ago, instead of being like the world, I chose to join a small circle of believers who prayed in the New Year of 2002. This wasn't the typical quick tagline before dinner, either, but involved 3 or 4 smaller groups composed of 4 at a table, as we cycled individually. It went on for 1-2 hours...and it was stunning. How it contrasted from the broken world I had known, a world that is driven by self! In those college years, it was about the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And there I was, a part of something wholly different.

2002 proved to be a financially frugal year while spiritually rich. In all of these years since, I have not experienced a year with as much spiritual abundance. Of course, there were letdowns; it's expected in that post-college time that there are storylines that zig instead of zag. However, I spent a lot of my time growing in God's truth. I only wish I had not railed that March weekend against the Doctrines of Grace down at that discipleship ranch in Denton, Texas! Ah, but we always seem to adopt that theology kicking and screaming from our fallen nature!

While I look to the future, I hope 2022 will share in the same zeal as 2002—it's the core thrust of my resolutions. How is that done? Spending time in the Bible...prayer...meditating on God...dwelling on the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It's far beyond head knowledge. One can know stuff and be far away from God, distracted and disabled. It's like striving a life that is consistent with Jesus' tips on prayer:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 6:9-13