What's So NEW About 2013?

Gratitude Journal - January 1, 2013
1. Down time - even 'forced' vacation time...
2. These particular "HOLY"-days!
3. Spending quality time with grand-kids
4. Beth making home-made cookies
5. Tail lights leaving the drive-way... bittersweet!!!

Think about it.  Literally everyone - myself included - seems to be bent on wishing you a Happy NEW Year!  The more I ponder those words, I wonder what we mean when we repeat this oft heard phrase to one another?  What is so NEW about this year?

There is indeed a turn of the page on our old paper calendars.  But while this year starts on Tuesday, every week of the year has a Tuesday.  What is NEW about that?  We still have to prepare for work, pay bills, do laundry, eat food - even if we do 'start to diet'...  We continue to have kids in school, same relatives in nursing homes, homes to maintain, even same houses of worship to attend.  So what is so NEW about a year? 

Studies indicate that most of those who make 'resolutions' soon break them.  No matter what the good intent might be - exercise, diet, sleep, quality time with our mate, staying in touch with friends/relatives on a more consistent basis, etc. Most of these 'commitments' go out the window in a very short amount of time!

So maybe we need to recognize that there really isn't much NEW under the sun! (someone famous said that before I...)  But before we get depressed and throw all our grand intentions out, maybe we should really revisit what it is we are looking forward to and/or anticipate when we say, HAPPY NEW YEAR. 

I believe deep within all of us there is a desire to start over.  To try once again to 'get it right'.  To make up for mistakes we have made or clean up some mess that continues to hand around, no matter how hard we wish otherwise...  So - maybe, just maybe - it is the anticipation of a more hope-filled moment to occur on our path!

I for one need disparately to start all over, beginning with my attitude toward those who have hurt me.  Whether it was intentional or just in oversight or blindness to my need, others do inflict pain and I naturally want to get back at them.  Or I want to see the suffering others cause me and omit my own participation in a wounded relationship. Or maybe I am too much self-centered on my own pain and don't see the burdens others are dealing with...

God blesses each of us with the start of each NEW day - whether it begins some NEW month on a calendar or not.  With each breathe we are granted NEW hope to start over.  NEW opportunities to accept the GRACE we don't deserve, to open our hearts and lives to God's love for us.  No matter how old I get or how many NEW year's come along, God grant me to eyes to see and ears to hear that NEWNESS is something all around me and available to me each and every day...  I need not wait 12 more months to start over again!

AMEN

Pressure to take a vacation...

Pressure to take a vacation...

Over this past year I have been extremely busy.  I have been assisting clergy and congregations in addressing obstacles standing in the way of a more fruitful ministry.  It has been exciting, challenging, fulfilling, joyful and at times anxiety producing!  It has never been dull.

Although I have taken some time away for a break with my wife, kids and grands, I have not 'used up' all my vacation days.  So now at the end of the year I am have created another 'pressure' for myself.  Either find a way to use the days OR I will loose them. 

So I recently looked over the calendar and carved out almost three weeks of 'down-time'.  Beth (my wife) indicates that there won't be much 'down' about it - ha.  But I do hope and plan to set aside some private time for reflection during Advent and prepare my heart more for the gifts God has in store. 

I pray for a peaceful heart and thereby peaceful relationships with all those I come in contact with this year.  I pray for a hopefulness to fill my mind, so that I may share positive hope with anxious persons around me.
I pray for gracefulness with myself, in hopes that I will be graceful toward those who are hard and bitter.
I pray for joy to radiate from my life, particularly for those filled with sadness and pain, so they might be restored.
And finally I pray for LOVE - God's love for all! 

May it be so Lord, may it be so...

SHALOM