2016 wasn't all that bad

Normally, people like to look back at the old year on the last couple of days of it, and to get on with the new one after it turns midnight on January 1st. Traditionally, I'm like that too. Only this year, during the past week, I had a lot of trouble coming up with any blog posts at all, and a lot of that was fueled by not having much time to write. Being a mail carrier in December is not conducive to having huge amounts of leftover time. It is conducive to overtime.
So, I thought I'd sit back and reminisce about 2016. Worldwide, it was fairly sucky. A lot of bad stuff happened in the world. Terrorism, politics, unrest. Things that really tend to get people in an uproar were plentiful.
Personally, I had a lot of good things happen. There were hikes, skiing, picnics, four-wheeling, fishing, friendships, family--far too many good things for me to count. I can even look at lotion being rubbed into my dry mailman hands as one of the great things of the year, things for which I am most grateful.
One thing that happened to me stands out more than most. In December, I got baptized as a Christian. Taking the step to committing to Christ was more important to me than everything else. And though I know some of my LDS friends won't like it, it was something that I had to do, which btw, isn't the same as a Mormon baptism in which you become a member of the church. I was already a member of Christ's church when I decided to believe that faith in Him alone is what saves and I turned myself over to Him.
I won't becoming back to the LDS faith. And I still love all my LDS friends. My biggest hope for them and you is that you will seek the real Christ, the one who saves without requiring anything from us other than our faith that He loved (and still does) us enough to die for us. That belief will lead us to do good works in order honor Him, but those works aren't what saves us, because our personal righteousness is as "filthy rags" to God (Isaiah 64:6). Paul emphasizes this point in Galatians 2:21 when he says, "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
I thank those who led me to Christ.
2016 was a good year. I believe 2017 will be even better.