I was thinking the other day of a battle I won simply because I didn’t fight it.

More than once, I had been sorely tempted to wade into the fray on my own behalf. After all, in my thinking, I had been badly treated. Why shouldn’t I feel free to point it out or do something about it?

Every time I got to that point, the Lord arrested me. If my life belongs to him, then so do all my battles. When I get involved, I never know how much of my cause is really just, and how much is my own injured pride or self-interest.

A scene that unfolded as I looked out our patio doors this week pretty much summed up the last year. The people building a house on the vacant lot adjacent to us for no apparent reason obliterated a number of beautiful hundred year old trees that were a blaze of colour every October.

I might as well say it — I was angry. I felt — and was — helpless to prevent something that shouldn’t have happened. And that, I think, is how a lot of us feel processing the events of these past months.

Saul was having a bad day. David had come back again from battle, and the crowds were hailing him as ten times more successful than him. A secure spiritual father would have rejoiced in the success of his son. But Saul never made it that far. He was an insecure man who could not stand to have someone else looking better than him. His insecurity led him to try to kill David several times. It led to him being dominated by an evil spirit. And eventually, it led to him ending his life consulting a medium.

There are some Bible verses that can definitely strike you the wrong way. One of them is this: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Ouch! It sounds like spiritual masochism. Part of our problem is we tend to read it the wrong way, as if Paul meant to say, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for these circumstances are the will of God for you.”

The Christmas letter I wrote for many years has gradually morphed into this end of year update. It’s a little less personal, but enables me to give a brief description of what we’ve been doing to so many of you who have prayed for us, supported us and in general taken an interest in our lives.