2012… It had
some great moments and memories and it had some very hard times. To write just
about the natural disasters that happened locally and nationally would take
quite a while. Or to write about the terrible tragedies that took so many lives
this year would also take quite a while. I could also write for a very long
while on God’s faithfulness, provision, protection, healing, and so many more
things in this past year. Everyone has had different moments of greatness and
sorrow in 2012, but those times are in the past and are only memories now. Tuesday begins a new year, a new blank slate
to be filled with the twists and turns of life. If I had taken a guess at what
my life would look like right now at the beginning of last year it would have
been very far off, but then again I think every year is like that. We can try to take an educated guess on the
future based on our work situation, friendships, where we want to be, etc. but
there are so many factors we can never account for. God is faithfully in control of our lives and
brings different events into our lives to mold and shape us. Many times the
events that happen in life leave us with no human explanation to why it
happened, but we can take comfort in knowing that we serve a God who is
sovereign over all things.
I have the privilege of helping lead worship at
my church on New Year’s Eve this year.
During practice this week we decided to do a song that I hadn’t heard
for a long time, but ever since we practiced it I can’t stop thinking about it.
The song is Ruin Me and the verse and chorus are:
Woe to me I
am unclean
A sinner
found in Your presence
I see you
seated on Your throne
Exalted,
Your Glory surrounds You
Now the
plans that I have made
Fail to
compare when I see your glory
Ruin my life
the plans I have made
Ruin desires
for my own selfish gain
Destroy the
idols that have taken Your place
'Till its
You alone I live for,
You alone I
live for
The verse is
taken out of Isaiah 6 where Isaiah sees the Lord seated on the throne. When
Isaiah catches a glimpse into the full glory of the Lord he fully realizes how
sinful and unrighteous he truly is. He
realizes that his life is meaningless unless it is spent bringing glory to God.
Towards the end of the passage Isaiah says, “Here am I, Send me!” In other
words it is a total surrender of the plans he had made for his life that were
selfish gain.
If only we fully grasped God’s holiness and righteousness compared
to our inadequacy we would have the same reaction Isaiah had when he saw the
Lord, “Woe to me, for I am ruined!” All of our selfish ways and plans would be
brought to light and we would see how dishonoring they are.
The chorus of the song is prayer
that all the things in our lives that our not pleasing in God’s sight would be
removed. That the way we plan our days, weeks, and years would no longer be
focused on achieving our own gains, but first and foremost about knowing God
more and making Him known. My prayer is that 2013 would be a year marked by us
throwing off the things that so easily entangle us and running the race set
before us fixing our eyes on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:1-3)
