Happy Chinese New Year.  May the Lord’s goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.  We don’t know what awaits us, but we know what we have left behind, at least in California.  Many who worked at giant media companies like Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, and CBS lost their jobs.  And at least 120,000 tech firms’ employees were laid off last year.  And the list goes on.  We don’t know what awaits us, but we have at least seen what greets us this new year: the skyrocketed egg and natural gas prices! 

Reading about the grim economic prospect and experiencing it first-hand are two different things.  I know some of us are now in this boat of experiencing it firsthand.  As I have told you before, Santy and I were in the same boat before. We’re fortunate that we were able to get free housing at Santy’s parents’ home.  And we thanked God for sending piano students to Santy and a couple of churches that invited me to speak on several occasions.  It truly was a trying time, not knowing what awaited us, only knowing what we had left behind.  But I must say, it’s also a praying and growing time.

The other day I talked with somebody who left behind a tough year with no inkling what awaited him this new year.  He told me that the only thing that kept him strong was this verse from Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?” He believed it and clung to it.

There was a verse that caught my eye when I was having quiet time some time ago.  It’s the end of Verse 20 and the beginning of Verse 21 of Genesis 39, “And he was there in the prison.  But the Lord was with Joseph . . . .”  We do not know what awaits us, but we know who awaits us, God.  And He will be with us, even in life’s dungeon.

Pastor Paul