2014 in Review

The year is at its end. It's a good time to review. Let's see ...

Well, we had wonderful visits this past year with my sister and her husband for a couple of months. Good times. Relatives who have never visited came to visit this year from California and from Minnesota. We took our granddaughter to the big biannual family reunion. She had a great time. My youngest son left the town and the state to head for the rainy northwest. He likes it better there. (Arizona living is an acquired taste.) My wife "lost" her job of the last 5 years when the granddaughter went to kindergarten. (She was the "daycare service".) We took a nice trip to a Bavarian town called Leavenworth in Washington to see my wife's family and celebrate her oldest sister's 60th birthday. Our town got 6 inches of rain in September, the 7th most in history. My oldest daughter got married in October. And we had a grand time with both families (separately) in California over the Thanksgiving holidays. A good year. For us.

What else? There has been the whole "white cops killing innocent black people" stuff going on in Ferguson and Phoenix and New York City and ... I suppose just about anywhere. "No justice, no peace" is the cry even though "justice" is an undefined term in this application (as illustrated by the black man that killed two NYPD officers--one Asian and one Hispanic--in retaliation). President Obama decided, right after the elections were over, to unilaterally change immigration laws for "dreamers". That's ongoing. In August social media made a big deal about buckets of ice water for ALS. What actual impact it had on Lou Gehrig's I haven't a clue. The world has been facing a huge problem with Ebola in Africa and spreading elsewhere. Lots of have died and as far as we know there is no end in sight. And ISIS reared its ugly head, a really nasty group of people that make Al Qaeda seem tame. In football, Ray Rice knocked out his fiancé, got suspended from football, and won back his right to play, while Adrian Peterson was accused of beating his son "with a tree branch" and is still suspended from football. Malaysian Flight MH370 vanished after take off from Kuala Lumpur and no one knows what happened to the plane or the passengers. Russia invaded Ukraine (I suppose we can debate that) and pro-Russian troops shot down a second Malaysian airliner. And be sure to add in QZ8501 to the downed airline list. We had midterm elections that overthrew the Democrats in both the House and the Senate. We'll see what that brings about, but I'm not holding my breath. Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana and several other states legalized medical marijuana. (I laughed at the headline: "New Highs for Pot".) The courts decided to legislate the English language by redefining "marriage" and disallowing any state from defining it as it has always been defined. There were some staggering data breaches as the concept of "cyberwarfare" comes into its own. Target, P.F. Changs, Michaels, Goodwill, Neiman Marcus, Home Depot, and JPMorgan Chase all had huge cyberattacks. Oh, wait, one more ... let's see ... oh, yeah! That movie studio, Sony. Over a stupid movie. Go figure. I, for one, am looking forward to watching whatever our North Korean overlords will allow us to watch in the next year. As for the economy, well, it all depends on who you ask. They tell me things are getting better, but why am I making less today than I was in 2009 (doing the very same job for the very same company) and why is it that the participation rate in the labor market is the lowest it has been in 35 years? (I was amused at the news story that told that people are more highly optimistic about the economy because 36% think this is a good time to be looking for work. How does "36%" work out to "highly optimistic"?)

Now, what could those two paragraphs possibly have in common except for the fact that they both explain "2014"? Nothing. Unless you keep in mind, "God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." (Source) "Whatsoever comes to pass." I'll tell you what, whether it's the heart attack we thought my wife had but didn't or it's the uncertainty of the courts and the government and the economy, it's good to know that God has not lost touch, lost control, or been limited to our vagaries and evil intentions. It's good to know that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Rom 8:28) Good! I can allow the peace of Christ to rule in my heart (Col 3:15), to be content in any circumstance (Phil 4:11). So current events just don't disturb me that much. I guess that makes 2014 a pretty good year.