2008: Starting with a Whimper Instead of a Bang...

Blogging's a funny thing...

You start off thinking you're going to post to this thing constantly, and then promptly forget all about it. Since the last go round an entire summer and fall have passed, bringing us to a new year.

2008 thus far has reminded me that man has his own plans... and that they don't always come to fruition. As the fall semester ended I envisioned a grand holiday season, complete with celebrations with family and friends, and time to leap into another research project to start the new year off right. Alas, on December 21st I developed a headache that advanced into daily, constant head pain - ultimately diagnosed as occipital neuralgia, a condition of the nerves running through the neck and over the scalp.

Today I still have discomfort, and looking back I lament how this chronic condition robbed me of my ability to focus on things that are important to me. Nonetheless, I've tried not to be bitter, as I have found myself drawing closer to God through it all. In some respects I've identified with the apostle Paul in his requests for God to heal him of his own affliction. In Paul's case God decided not to grant his request, as Paul's suffering was to teach him that God's grace was sufficient to carry him through his difficulty. And while I can't help but hope that my outcome will not be the same as Paul's, I do take comfort in the fact that God is gracious and faithful, and that no matter what He will never forsake me.

Sometimes God doesn't speak from the fire or the hurricane... sometimes He speaks in the stillness of quiet suffering and says "peace."