We spent New Year’s Eve on the banks of the River Torrens in Adelaide with our family and grandchildren enjoying a family concert and an early program of fireworks put on for families.  The mild evening, the fountain in the water, the magnificent colour of the sky as the sun set, watching children and adults participating in songs – all contributed to a very pleasant end to the year.  The highlight of course was the fireworks – brilliant colours bursting into the night sky for 10 or 15 minutes, ushering in a new year.

New Year’s Day – with resolutions, hopes, fears, faith, concerns.  Does the time span of 24 hours really make all that much difference to the way we choose to live our lives?  One of the photographs in the newspaper which caught my attention was of a beach littered with so much debris left by New Year revellers from the night before that the beach had to be closed for 3 hours while council employees and volunteers cleaned it up. 

This time of the year seems to be about cleaning up.  Cleaning up litter left lying around.  Cleaning up cupboards, sorting, discarding, getting rid of clutter.  Cleaning up the church and packing away all the items used in the Christmas Festival, ready for next Christmas.  Cleaning up gardens after the rain and wind that we experienced before Christmas.  What about the inner cleansing that needs to happen?  How much
attention do we give to that?  Discarding old, tired, bitter attitudes.  Casting off unhelpful patterns of living that cause us to become stressed.  Abandoning habits that are self-destructive.

It’s a good time of the year to re-assess our priorities, both personally and as a church.  Are we aligned with God’s purposes for our lives and for the mission he calls us to be involved in through the church?  How will we make time and space to listen to the still, small voice of God’s wisdom guiding us along the path of life? 

What does it mean to say ‘Happy New Year’ to those of you who are carrying burdens of ill health, either their own health or that of a loved one?  Some of you have taken on responsibility for the care of frail, elderly relatives and friends.  Some of you are experiencing difficulties in relationships that are not working out as you hoped or intended.  Some of you are anticipating a different pace as work duties change and you enter a different stage of life.  Some of you may be feeling that one year rolls into another, and the mundane routine will simply continue as it did last year.  Some are anticipating change as children start a new school, or kinder.

Whatever this New Year holds for you, may there be spacious moments of grace, hope and peace.  Whatever this New Year holds for this church, may there be a desire to continue to be involved in God’s exciting mission of making his love known in very real ways in this community, in the neighbourhoods where you live and in the places you inhabit for work, for leisure and for socialising.  The mission of God is summed up in one of Jesus’ names - Immanuel, God with us.  As individuals, as a church, may that be our resolution, to be able to live in a way that demonstrates that God has come in Jesus to be with us, to be in our world, so that we can say to people and demonstrate that God is with them, whatever they are going through – he loves them, he wants the best for them, he wants his justice, his truth, his grace to be expressed in every part of creation.

Hear these words of scripture and draw hope for the New Year from them. 
‘This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.’ 
Lamentations 3: 21-26

The blessing of God be with you in this New Year.

-- Lynette Leach

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.12

Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.