2016, A Requiem.

I can confidently say, after speaking with various friends and family, not to mention scouring social media, that the year 2016 was a doozy of a year. Obviously generalizations are never accurate, but it appears that this year in particular may go down as one of the worst years in most of our lives. Clearly, this isn’t the apocalypse, so who knows what 2017 will bring… I’m a fan of the idea that a great year will follow a crummy one. Here’s to hoping I’m right on that one.

I’ve never written a best of/worst of article in regards to a year before. I think it’s because this year had some real definitive low points. However, upon further review, it also had some great moments for me. I shall limit myself to the Best 5 Things and the Worst 5 Things. So in typical fashion, here is my 2016, A Requiem.

The Victorious Five

1. Five years ago, I married my sweet, wonderful, amazing, quirky, gracious, humble, generous, Hippie Wife. When one has had a marriage end in divorce, then finds love, these kind of milestones take on new meaning. At least, they do for me. When my first marriage was crashing in flames, I remember a friend giving out some tough love. He said to me, “if you give up on this marriage, you’ll never learn from your mistakes. You’ll continue to perpetuate the failures you brought into this marriage. You’ll never have a successful marriage again.” Obviously, this line was utter garbage and I didn’t believe it then either. But it was wonderful to remember his words as I celebrated five years of spectacular, world shaping, fulfilling, peaceful, connected marriage with my wife. So 2016, thank you for giving me a very special five year anniversary with Hippie Wife.
2. This year I was lucky enough to reconnect, in person, with some old friends. I’m not talking about the typical Facebook connection. “Hey how’s life?” “Great!” *crickets crickets* I’m talking about, visiting in person some wonderful people I hadn’t seen in eight years. Many I had shed tears with and enjoyed ministry with. Fellow believers in God and lovers of Jesus. Just the chance to share some eclectic street tacos and drink a beer with some amazing friends from Ridgway was a huge blessing to my soul. There were quite a few who were students in high school, now grown, married, and living life… Such a crazy time to see you all blossoming into adulthood. I felt old… but in the best of ways. If I didn’t see you in Ridgway this summer, I promise I won’t wait eight years to go back this next time. So 2016, thank you for the chance to see old friends again. To realize that true connected friendship can survive years of disconnect only to blossom into laughs, hugs, and joy.
3. I discovered something about myself this year that I had never really realized. I really enjoy writing! In no way do I consider myself a good or even great writer. But I never realized, until this year, that I really enjoy crafting my thoughts into a written medium. I moved my blog from a more social media driven platform to a more writers friendly medium. Here’s to hoping that this new hobby continues to develop into something really cool… potentially even a platform that God could use to impact and affect other’s lives. Hey, isn’t that was Jesus followers are supposed to do? Shake the earth and build the kingdom? So 2016, thank you for letting me realize that it’s ok to put yourself out there on a platform, even if it’s not an area of high strength.
4. There were some seriously awesome movies that came out this year. I’m a sucker for late night, solo trips to the movie theater. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine. I’ll frequently go grab a ticket for a 10:30pm showing of a movie. Hippie Wife and the kiddos are in bed and I can slip away. It’s like therapy for me. At any rate, Captain America: Civil War and Rogue One were amazing. But my favorite movie of the year, hands down, was Hacksaw Ridge. I still need to write a review about it. It’s brutal in its depiction of warfare, but the soul of the movie… it’s possible to be a peacemaker in the midst of war… left an indelible mark on my heart. It also helped vindicate much of the criticism I have faced (more on that later) this year for being a non-violence, enemy loving, cruciform emulating Jesus lover. So 2016, thank you for bringing some amazing films to the silver screen this year… actual works of art that impacted my persona instead of merely entertaining me.
5. Vinyl has finally returned to my life! Quick backstory, I have vivid memories of sitting in my bedroom as a child (long before there were computers, smartphones, and the like and our family not owning a gaming system of any kind) with an old portable record player. I remember sitting there listening to my father’s old Beach Boys albums until that needle carved a crevasse in the vinyl. Vinyl has always had a spot in my heart. But I’ve never spent the time to invest in a good turntable system. I’ve owned a myriad of crummy record players that were cheap and failed. This year, that changed, I invested in a highly rated, well built, and brand new table. I plan on writing more about vinyl, but for today’s purposes, it’s so wonderful to have this musical piece of my life massaging my heart strings again. So 2016, thank you for bringing vinyl back into my life.

Defeated By Five

1. Ok I’ll start with the most underwhelming, self-deprecating defeat of this year. Let’s talk about my belly for a second. It’s completely out of control. I’ve eaten healthier this year than ever before, with the same amount of exercise as before… yet it continues to grow to uncomfortable measure. Oh wait… I’m nearly 40 years old. I suppose this is what happens right? So 2016, I’d like my old belly back please.
2. I’m ramping it up… let’s talk about summer of 2016 here in Kansas for a second. First of all, you need to realize summers in Kansas are ridiculously horrible. It gets hot (triple digits), humid (80% humidity a lot), and windy (think blow dryer in your face). Now compare that with the mild, wonderful, summers of Colorado that I grew up with… am I right? Now let’s talk about how summer started in March this last year and didn’t end until mid-November… I.Kid.You.Not. So 2016, you can take your summer and shove it.
3. Ok now we’re getting a bit more gritty. Death and life are part of the reality of mankind. We all know this. Every year, people die. Sometimes very important and special people die. Every year, beloved personalities of culture die. But I have never seen a year where so many beloved cultural identities came to an end. It started with David Bowie for me. I won’t say that I’m a huge Bowie fan… I don’t have or listen to all of his music. But I completely understand his influence in music and culture and how his mark has affected me, being as one who grew up in the 80’s. Follow along after Bowie: Alan Rickman, Prince, Nick Menza, Muhammed Ali, Anton Yelchin, Gene Wilder, John Glenn, Alan Thicke, George Michael, Carrie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds. Obviously there are many many more. But these were the names that had some modicum of meaning in my life. This tweet at least brought a little joy through all of this loss:

So 2016, you’ve taken an immense amount of joy from our world… but we have the last laugh because we will remember their work, joy, adventure, and accomplishments as they will be preserved in the wonderful annuls of history.

4. Now we’re getting real. Let’s talk about the 2016 presidential election for a second. Can we all just agree that this was easily the biggest dumpster fire of any election cycle in the history of mankind? Ok that may be a bit hyperbolic. But really, regardless of whom you or I supported (or more likely couldn’t support), this election season saw sky high amounts of negativity, ugliness, corruption, immorality… I have no more words. This election, alone, caused more fights among family members and friends than any other I can remember. Facebook was nearly unbearable to look at for six months… and quite frankly I still haven’t recovered enough to spend time scrolling through that timeline. One could not go through half a day before getting disgusted by one piece of rhetoric or another. And let’s not even talk about how either candidates (both of whom claim faith in the Lord Jesus Christ) fail, miserably, in modeling a Christ-centered, Kingdom focused, world view. So 2016, you can take this horrific display of political garbage and choke on it. And if you collude with 2020 to repeat it… well in the words of monty python:

5. And now, probably the most heartbreaking for me… the disunity of the Church. Growing up in American Protestantism, I have seen my fair share of disunifying principles. However, none have ever reached such feverish pitch as 2016. Christians across the board were bashing each other for various ethical responses to what was going on in the world around us. The sad problem was, instead of finding common ground around a risen Savior who pleads for us to engage culture and shine the light of God’s grace to those around us, we devolved into political muck-slinging power play. It permeated every aspect of the Church of America. There were Trump Christians. There were Hillary Christians. There were Ben Carson Christians. There were every sort of Christian, it seems, but not enough of “Jesus Christians.” I felt it. You felt it too. And if you’re a Christian like me, you probably perpetuated the disunity… and we should all be ashamed. The world around us watched us tear each other apart because of our political views and had to think, “these Christians preach Jesus, but they don’t even follow him.” I pray that God will shake the foundation of the Church of America and cause us to realize that we need to be focusing on His glory, His purposes, and His ethics. Quite simply because every other glory, purpose, or ethic will fade into obscurity. Only the Kingdom of God will preserver. Bless you Eugene Peterson for your brilliant paraphrase of 1 Corinthians, because we need to hear it today:

“But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally infantile?

Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God’s fool — that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture,

‘He exposes the chicanery of the chic. The Master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls.’

I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift — Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future — all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.” — 1 Corinthians 3:1–4; 18–23

So 2016, you can take your disunity and choke on it. We’re going to leave this here in your historically bad year and push forward. The Church will endure. I pray the Church will come to its senses in 2017. I know that, for my part, 2017 will become the year of Jesus Christ, His ethic, His purpose, and His glory. Church, perhaps this could be our anthem for 2017:

There’s a place where the angels are dancing like children
And it’s calling me
And all the saints with joyful hearts are joining in
They’re dancing in the streets

They move with beauty, they move with grace
As they celebrate the coming day
When the lost will be found
When every knee will hit the ground and we’ll sing

Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord

There’s a place where the children are singing like angels
And it’s calling me
And all the saints with outstretched arms are joining in
In the melody

With hearts aflame and voices raised
They will celebrate the day when we’ll sing

Holy, holy is the Lord
Together with one voice
Holy, holy is the Lord
Let all the earth rejoice

Holy, there’s no one like You, Lord
Magnificent You are
Holy, holy is the Lord

All the walls will crumble down
And we will at last be one
As we join the saints and we join the angels
Around the throne we’ll cast our crowns and sing

Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord — Jason Morant