What Surprised You in 2008?
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Just me on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:00 PM
Our family has spent the past few days vacationing in San Francisco. Part of the bliss of such trips is the chance to spend uninterrupted time in conversation with my husband and teenage sons.
The other day, we were reminiscing about the past year, as families frequently do prior to New Year’s every year. The thing that struck me about the conversation were how many completely unanticipated events happened in our lives this year - things I never could have imagined in December 2007!
In the course of this year, my eldest son Eric transformed from a football player into an orchestra and jazz musician, transferring high schools in the process. Adam, his brother, hardly resembles the shy, introverted kid we knew a year ago.
In my own life, opportunities beyond my wildest imagination came to me in 2008. The fact that I’m able to share with all of you here on Faith and Family Live! at Danielle Bean’s invitation is simply one indication of how fortunate I’ve been - I’m sure Danielle, Rebecca, Arwen and Rachel would each reiterate how tremendously blessed we have been to have each of you in our lives this year and to learn so much from you every day.
Last December, I couldn’t have imagined that some of the friends we’ve lost this year to untimely deaths would no longer be with us - I also would never have predicted my own diagnosis with a treatable form of breast cancer. Although that “adventure” will spill into 2009 as I begin my radiation treatments on Friday, I can already see the surprisingly positive impact this situation has had upon my priorities and my spiritual life.
None of us knows what the future will hold, so although we may try to guess what our lives will look like this year we’re likely to fail in our guessing. And that’s the true fun of life, isn’t it? Being loved by a God who cares for us unconditionally and having a faith that enables us to abide through all of life’s ups and downs makes the daily act of simply living out our vocations a wild ride at times.
Did you have major life surprises in 2008 or those minor ones that seemed like “no big deal” at the time but had a cumulative effect - a new baby, a new job or home, a family member lost, or another blessing you couldn’t have predicted? I’d love to hear some of the things that surprised you in 2008 - whether it was something in the news or simply something that happened in your own little corner of the world.
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