EDITOR'S NOTE: Visit "WorldView Conversation," the blog related to this column, at http://worldviewconversation.blogspot.com./

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Ten years ago this month, many people were wondering if the world would end with the beginning of the new millennium.

It didn't happen, although in light of subsequent events, some might wish it had. TIME magazine recently dubbed 2000-2009 "The Decade from Hell" -- a "10-year gauntlet" of trials and tribulations. A partial list:

-- the Sept. 11 attacks, which ended any lingering hope of a peaceful post-Cold War world

-- innumerable smaller terrorist attacks from Madrid to Mumbai

-- wars and insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Congo, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Somalia and many other places

-- earthquakes that killed tens of thousands in China, Iran and Pakistan

-- a tsunami that swept away more than 200,000 people in Asia and Africa

As if those events weren't devastating enough, a major economic downturn beginning in 2008 continues to cause untold hardships across the globe for hundreds of millions of workers and their families.

In a struggle that captured far fewer headlines, many Christian believers died for their faith during the decade -- including eight Southern Baptist missionaries. Countless other followers of Christ have suffered violence, imprisonment, harassment and other forms of persecution for living and sharing their faith.

Would it have been better if the last 10 years had never occurred? To answer yes is to misunderstand God's sovereignty. If He is the Lord of all history, He is the Lord of recent history. He uses all things, even tragedies and actions others intend for evil, to bless the nations and bring glory to Himself.

In a December 1999 column, I observed:

"The tumultuous 20th staggers to an end this month.... Historians will recall many things about it: two world wars, the fall of old empires and rise of new ones, the devastation wrought by communism and totalitarianism, the Holocaust, the spread of democracy and capitalism, man on the moon, the computer, the Bomb....

" the fresh movement of God's Spirit is the real story of the century. How else to explain the staggering growth of the church, the Gospel's spread to countless places worldwide -- not just in the West -- and the glorifying of God's name among peoples who've never heard it until now? God isn't finished with us.... His Spirit is quietly, inexorably, powerfully moving -- like a vast, unseen river."