It's a brand spanking, glorious new year, young folks!

Don't we all love fresh starts? Chances are that we won't fiend for the decade of '00s, or what some call the "Oh-No's!," what with the reality of terrorism, recession, pandemics and war. Nope. 2010 brings with it a sense of breakthrough...a boost...a hope.

Time sure does fly.

It's hard to believe that this June I'll be celebrating my 10 year high school reunion, and this November I'll be turning 29. Although far from over, this stage of my life has been tenderly chaotic. Gosh, I've really put the "roaring" in roaring twenties. Certainly, I never planned on being where I am today. I mean that last sentence in both good and bad terms. Sometimes, I'm in awe of Jesus' hand in my life. Other times, I'm disappointed at the ways that I've allowed Satan to dupe me.

Looking back, especially on my early twenties, I didn't always listen to the Lord. There were relationships that I had no business forming, people that I should've been kinder to, lies that I shouldn't have told. There were duties that God told me to complete, but I didn't; others that I should've avoided but pursued. Last week, during a conversation with a girlfriend, I explained that early on in my Christian walk, I was totally a "Romans 7 Girl" - you know, where I didn't do what I urged to, yet consistently did what I hated, as the Apostle Paul describes.

Amazingly, though, if I were given the choice to go back in time to redo my journey, I'd trek my course the very same way the second time around. In the same vein, when I consider the problems I've had, if someone forced me to put them in a big bag filled with other people's problems...and suppose the person compelled me to then choose the problems that I'd prefer...no doubt, I'd choose my original problems all over again.

God specializes in using blemished pasts. In fact, He has a special word for them: testimonies. One of the peculiarities about our Savior's lineage is it's jammed packed with imperfect ancestors with powerful testimonies.

Even though Satan wants to take us out, what he - the Accuser of Christians -means for evil, our Lord will use for our benefit. He promised to cancel our silly sins and throw them in the Sea of Forgetfulness. No geologist knows for sure where that sea is, but it sounds far, far away.

Unlike Satan, God's plans for us are not for destruction, but for a hope and a future. Even when we're in the red, God makes us white as snow.

What I love most is that He said that we are not simply conquerors, but that we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. We are more than conquerors of our past in Christ Jesus.

Indeed, 2009 is gone.As a matter of fact, at this point we ought to consider the 2000s a spot in the distance. But, oh, the promises and purposes that this next era will bring!

If you could change your past would you? Will you be like Lot's wife-who looked back even to the point of her doom? Or will you be like Paul-who threw a peace sign to his past and pressed toward the goal of living for Christ?

Ana Guthrie is a super cool chick with a heart for God and love for youth culture. She doubles as a not-so-naughty librarian and instructor at Florida Memorial University in Miami, Florida.