01/01/08 – Given the pivotal nature of one year changing over to another, I along with most other people I know find the New Year an excellent time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the next. All I require is a couple of moments to think back, and I’m amazed as much by all that I remember as by all that I’ve forgotten.
Oftentimes, with the New Year comes a strong sense of optimism as we take the past year into account and resolve to do better in the next. Though, perhaps this is due more to our short-sighted memories rather than the testimony of experience as many have found that New Year’s Resolutions are made to be broken.
What did this past year hold, and what is in store for the next? Depending on your circumstances and your outlook on life, facing this question can bring hopeful expectation or fear and trepidation.
Much like everything else in life, the New Year is a mixed bag. It can be cause for a celebration or cause for avoidance at all costs. So, given my sensitivities, I offer the words of Jesus of Nazareth desiring to give you hope in the midst of life’s realities.
Has your past year been filled with more highs than lows, or has it been filled with more sorrow than joy? Have you been busy or bored? Did you receive the promotion you wanted, break new ground in a relationship, or move to a new city? Perhaps you’re like me having said good bye to a loved one, or you’ve experienced times of great stress and anxiety. To all of us, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry” (Matthew 11: 28 - 30). For those who know his voice and the salvation that comes by actively trusting in his promises, Jesus invites us to leave behind the unmet expectations of this world and reenter it with the knowledge that God proved his love for us. He did this by inserting his Son into human history at just the right time to pay for our sin before a completely just and set apart God.
If your past year has been marked by hard times, the words Jesus spoke to his disciples in the upper room ring true, “in the world you have trouble and suffering” (John 16: 33). We each experience trouble and suffering as we live in this fallen world. Yet, when we look to Christ, in the same breathe we find that he said we can “take courage - for [he has] conquered the world” (Ibid).
Christ didn’t conquer the world by gaining the praise of adoring crowds, reforming the social and political structures of his day or being crowned ceasar. Rather, he conquered by following his Father’s will to a torturous death. He desperately held on to what he had the day that he was born, the love of his Father in heaven.
Likewise, he prayed that we might be like him when he said, “I [pray] on behalf of those who believe in me through [my disciple's] testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one - I in them and you in me - that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me” (John 17: 20 - 23).
For those who choose to follow Christ, their glory for the new year lies not in their gaining a promotion, meeting all their personal goals and resolutions, or finding satisfaction in their relationships. Instead their glory lies in abiding in the True Vine and showing themselves as witnesses of his love. So that the world may know that Jesus of Nazareth was sent by a loving and merciful God to save men and women from their sin.
If I am to resolve anything for this new year, may it be to cling more tightly to the love of the Father, to love him and his people more boldly, and to die to myself each day. All the while understanding that both my successes and failures in this endeavor will be a mark of his grace, mercy, and power at work in me.
One Trackback