Been a long time. . .

It has been a long, LONG time since I last posted. Part of the reason was I kept forgetting my username and password so it was kinda hard to access my blog homepage. Anyways, I figured it was time to share some random thoughts.

Gone is 2004. Overall I would say 2004 will be a year that my family and I will look back on with great fondness. First off, we welcomed our second child, a beautiful baby girl, into the world at the end of June.

Another highlight of 2004 was when we purchased our first house. It's been a great house for us and we look forward to watching our two kids grow up there.

So from a personal perspective 2004 was a good year.

I wonder what the rest of the world would say when they look back on this past year?

It obviously ended in tragedy with the tsunami in Thailand and area. People might make fun of Saskatchewan but when I see pictures of the destruction and mayhem that has occurred over there I find myself feeling very thankful for the flatlands of the prairies. I can't even imagine what people are going through over there. The latest update has the death toll rising above 150,000 people. That's three times the amount of people that live in the entire city that I live in! We're looking at loss of life of Biblical proportions.

It sickens me to see the shots of the innocent little children who have been lost in this terrible tragedy. My heart sinks and I squeeze my own two kids a little tighter. I can understand why, when things like this happen, people question God's goodness. I can't understand why something like this had to occur but I can just add that to the already immeasurable list of things that I already don't understand. I'm content with not having to know why. I'm more concerned with wanting to know how much longer I have to spend on this planet to see these types of things happening. These tragedies make me long that much more for the day when my family and I are called home to Heaven. I don't question God's goodness, but I long for a day when this type of suffering is no more.

In the same breath I am amazed at the outpouring of support, worldwide, that has come as a result of the tsunami. The human race has shown me that in spite of our inheritantly flawed nature, there are still millions of people who are capable of doing good. The money that is being sent to these countries for relief; the volunteers who are over there helping people; it amazes me to see people from across the world coming together to help those who have been devastated by this disaster. It makes me wonder if this was the type of response that the Lord was hoping to see from His people all along.