I love a good story, most people do, that is why so many millions and even billions of dollars are made each year telling people stories whether it is on television, or movies, or books, or graphic novels, or in whatever media form you prefer. Now story telling, like all ventures, begins with a blank page and I want us to think about the blank page for a few moments. As we come pell-mell to the end of 2016 how will we begin 2017? What will the New Year hold? Every year it is the same thing, we look forward to what will come, but it is a blank page. It is up to us to write the story. Now I know that God is the author of history and He is working out all things for His glory. It is vitally important as we look at the blank page to remember and to practice our theology. God knows what is coming, I don’t. I can look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus. I can look forward to being with the Lord. I can also look forward to more temporal things, such as being with my family, studying God’s Word, walking with my dogs, hunting and fishing with my friends. Each of us has our own list and each of us have our own dreams, because God has created us each as a unique individual.
Now, the blank page is before us. What are we to do? The nature of my work means that I spend a good amount of time staring at blank pages wondering how I’m going to fill them. It can be a very daunting thing, so daunting in fact that it can be paralyzing. How do you deal with the blank page? How do you deal with the life that is before you? The future awaits! However, it never really waits does it? The future has a way of becoming now and we can let life happen to us or we can take charge and make things happen. Even when we actively take charge and make things happen, there are events that happen in spite of our attempts to control. There are things that happen outside of our spheres of influence that overrule our plans. In that, we are reminded that we are not God. We are but people living in a world full of other people and, apart from God, each of us is following our own plan trying to get the most we can out of life before we die. The strongest, the shrewdest, the most unscrupulous tend to get their way because they know how to manipulate the system for their ends. So what are you going to do? As you stare at the blank page of 2017, are you going to fill it in with what you want? Are you going to just let things go and see what happens? Are you going to look to the Lord for guidance and make plans and take steps to implement those plans as the Lord leads? You are writing a story on the precious blank pages God gives that we call time. Do not waste the time. Jesus shed His precious blood for you that you, by faith, would be saved. Live your life in light of the great salvation. Write boldly on the page and look to the Lord to guide you.
