"2016 Was A Bad Year": A Reflection on the Past Year.

It's the last day of 2016. And what a year it's been!

I've been super active on my blog over the past couple of weeks, and here I am again because I have an issue with something that's gone on this year, and I can't let another day go by without taking a moment to talk about it.

Something that I've seen floating around all over social media for at least the past month are tweets, Facebook photos, memes, you name it, talking about how bad of a year 2016 was, saying it should be left out of history books, or stating that it has been the worst year in recorded history. At first I saw most of these things coming from big Twitter accounts that are simply hungry for retweets so although I was annoyed, I overlooked it. But more recently, I've seen people I know posting tweets and Facebook statuses about how excited they are for 2017 because it means that 2016, the worst year of all time, will be over.

Everyone, stop. Let's all just chill for five seconds.

Okay, now that you've all taken a deep breath, don't get me wrong. I understand what people are getting at. It's been a bad year in regards to things such as the American election, or the crazy number of celebrity deaths (even just in this past week), or even deaths of close friends or family.

But is that really grounds for saying that 2016 has been the worst year in recorded history? Like, let's be real here; bad elections, celebrity deaths, and deaths of loved ones happen every single year, not just in 2016. Why are people acting as though these are foreign situations that only just started happening this year? We're starting to act as if life has been 100% perfect before the clock struck midnight on January 1st, 2016.

Maybe some people think that I'm getting too bent out of shape over this, but there are people out there who seriously think this was the worst year ever. And then, because life is messy and imperfect, things will inevitably go wrong in 2017 and we'll start hearing "We thought that 2016 was bad, but 2017 is even worse!!!!1!1!!"

The meme that I saw yesterday that really got me going said this:

"[Sits in temperature controlled home, tweeting on handheld personal computer across the world, instantly] 2016 IS THE WORST!!!"

Come on, really? Is this what our entitled world has come to? We need to get our focus in the right place! Can people really tell me that they can't name even one positive thing that happened in their lives this year?

When I take a moment to look back on the past 365 days, yes I recognize that this world, as well as my own life, has seen some hard times. However, first and foremost I see God's goodness and mercy present in every situation. Okay, I'm a finite human, so I didn't actually recognize His presence in everything, but in hindsight, I know He was there. God was gracious to me far more times than I deserve.

I know that not everyone is a Christian, so not everyone will agree with me there, but let's put it this way then.

You're alive. Your heart is beating and there is air in your lungs.

You're reading this, and therefore you have a computer, or a smart phone of some type.

You're likely sitting (or standing) in a heated building while the snow and wind are raging outside.

You woke up this morning and had something to eat. Even if you don't eat breakfast, you get what I mean; you've eaten something today.

There are people in the world who are literally starving, freezing cold, dying of thirst, or dying in a hospital room, hooked up to oxygen machines because their lungs are too weak to allow them to breathe on their own.

And yet we still think that we have it sooooo rough.

I dropped my phone and shattered the screen.

My best friend got the iPhone 7 for Christmas and I only have the iPhone 6s.

I don't have enough money to buy all six worlds on the new Mario Run game for iOS.

These are all small, insignificant things and yet we think that everything sucks. Well guess what! It doesn't. We are so blessed. 

I often struggle with this entitled, "woe is me" mindset as well, so don't think that I'm preaching only to other people. I'm one of those external processors so I use my blog as an outlet for lessons that I'm learning in life and things that I need to constantly be reminded of.

And I'm not trying to downplay issues in life because there are legitimate issues in each of our lives. That is exactly why we need the Lord; we need to be able to rely on Someone who is far greater, and much more powerful than we are. We all experience family problems, financial issues, health struggles, personal trials, you name it. But we need to stop thinking that we deserve to have a problem-free life, because, due to our sinful nature, we don't. The Bible itself tells us that we will experience problems in our lives, but we can still have hope. Jesus said:

"In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33b)

So let's shake this ridiculous mindset that 2016 was the worst year ever, and see it instead as a year of changes and some hardships, but ultimately a year that God used in order to shape and grow each of us as individuals, in many different ways.