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"A NEW YEAR PERSPECTIVE" Readings:
Psalm 2, Ecclesiastes 3:1-11, Luke 9:57-62, Phillipians 3:7-16 Thoughts for the start of
a New Year I forget what is behind me and do my best to
reach what is ahead" (Phillipians
3:13) Paul speaks in this verse of two things - Forgetting and Going Forward. The text is from a chapter which urges the
reader to run the race of faith. God's
Spirit is the driving force that can give our lives a right perspective, A
NEW YEAR PERSPECTIVE. 1. Forget what is behind us. It is the season of the year when the media is full of
retrospectives. Who were the people
who made the year what it was? Who
were the faces, the places and what will be the lasting memories? Think for a moment about your own
life. What are the events and
happenings that would fill a memorial book of "My life - 2009"? I know that for some it's been a hard year. Maybe events have left you feeling fearful
and discouraged rather than confident and hopeful for what 2010 may bring
your way. If we've been hurt, it' not
easy to let go of resentments. If
we've been troubled it is hard to let our worries go. If we've failed, it's not easy to forget
our defeats. Paul wrote his words about pressing onward from the confines of a
prison. Despite his constraining
circumstances he writes a letter that is full of joy and hope. Whilst he was prepared to learn from the
past (something we have to do) he was equally prepared to let it go. Let me mention some things we do well to
put behind us. Resentments.
Resentment is a bitter and destructive poison to harbor within ones
system. It breeds self pity. Maybe we have been treated unfairly. Maybe last year did deal us an unfair
hand. But let it go. Sometimes others hurt us. At other times we try to fulfill
unrealistic aims or ambitions. We can
be our own worst enemies. Now is the time to practice forgiveness.
The late Corrie Ten Boon, a Dutch writer imprisoned in Auschwitz
concentration camp during the Second World War for befriending the Jews,
speaks in one of her books of her struggle to forgive her captors after the
war was over. She uses the
illustration of a church bell. The bell has a clapper inside.
When the rope is pulled the clapper rocks to and fro and the bell
rings. After you stop pulling on the
rope the clapper will eventually come to rest at the center and the bell
stops ringing. So it is with ourselves
and forgiveness. Once we decide to let go of our resentments, they are gone,
then they come swinging back again.
But every time we let go, the swings become less intense and
eventually the bad memories stop coming and we will find our center in
Christ. Let us enter the New Year
prepared to let go of any resentments and practice forgiveness. Let's also leave some of our worries behind. Jesus put it plainly enough. Can you grow
any taller by worrying about it? Does
fretting and misplaced concern lead you onward? Intelligent concern, that's fine, plans for
the future, resolutions even, yes... we need some of that, but worry? What
does that achieve? Some people carry round with them needless worries about themselves,
about others, about the world, about a whole host of things. At the root of
much worrying stands a lack of faith in God's providence. Constant obsessive worry is a kind of
disguised atheism. It affirms nothing
more than that we don't really believe in the presence of God to direct us
and guide us. Faith builds us up and strengthens
us. Worry pulls us down and weakens
us. I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned about the crazy world we live
in. I'm not saying that there won't be
times when situations come our way that make us feel, "Uh-Oh, What do we
do now!" I'm talking about not
carrying around with us a life that doesn't seem complete unless we have
something to worry about. Have faith
and trust in God over and above your worries.
Believe His love is strong enough and big enough to hold your life in
His care. As I heard in a country music song; "Forget
your worries, Forget your cares, Let
them fly into the air, Yee-Har
in the old fruit jar, Now,
we're getting somewhere" We have the choice. We can go into
the New Year carrying a load of care or we can go into it with a faith in the
Lord of the Dance. Mind you, if you
dance anything like me, that is not much of an encouragement. We need to leave our mistakes behind as
well. We need to forget our failures. Looking back reveals that we have not had a perfect year. If we've failed at something, either small
time or in a big way, it's too late to do anything about the failure
itself. A lost opportunity can not be
gone back to. A moral fall can't be
picked up. It happened. Now it's past and over. We have to learn from our mistakes but we
don't have to build our lives upon them.
If we focus only on our difficulties, on our problems, on our defeats,
then we will become difficult, problematic, defeated people. I remember reading somewhere, "Just because you failed, that doesn't
make you a failure". The point being that some people go through life
with a failure attitude. Somewhere
along the way, in the home, at school or in their work they have been told
"You'll never be anything". "Look what you've done now.
Failure. Good for nothing". The Good News of the gospel is that all alike have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God but we don't have to live our lives crawling around
like miserable, defeated sinners. Jesus died to forgive us and grant to us
the victory. Our God looks at us not
in terms of what we have become, but in the light of what we can be if we
give His love free reign in our lives.
Wasn't that how Jesus dealt with people? A fallen woman by the Samaritan well encounters Jesus and life is new
again. A blind beggar by the road,
Bartimaeus, calls out "Master,
let me see" and he's given a whole new vision. A hated tax collector, Zachaeus, hiding up
a tree. "Zachaeus" says
Jesus, "I'm coming to your house today". An encounter with Jesus
reminds that though we have failed, the doorway to opportunity and new life
is opened before us by the love of God. To have a right perspective on the New Year there are things we need to
forget. Paul writes about forgetting
what lies behind him and I suggest to you that we forget our resentments, our
worries, our failures. They are not
baggage we need to carry into a New Year with us. Having left some things behind there are
other things we need to take up. Paul
writes of forgetting what is behind him and pressing on. Do our best to reach what is
ahead. Think of the New Year as a book yet to be written. What words, what pictures, do you hope to
see on the pages of your life in the coming year? Maybe your aim is high. This is the year when you will..... (Fill in the space for yourself). Maybe we'll be content with having a peaceful and hopefully prosperous
New Year. Whether we aim high or low there are still steps we need to take if
we are going to "Do our best to reach what is ahead". Call to mind these two things and they may
help us on our way! a) Remember we are creatures of paradox! We sometimes get it
wrong. We sometimes get it right.
Though made in the image of God in each of us that image is tarnished
by our sin. At times we rebel against
God's ways in favor of our will being done.
Sometimes we become so accustomed to going the wrong way that it's the
way we naturally follow. Other times
we are so blind to the consequences of our actions that we act in
ignorance. Sometimes we know we're not
doing the right thing but we carry on just the same. We make resolutions. We don't always keep them. We're only human. And that is the whole problem. As "only human" we are creatures
of habit and inconsistency. Remember
that we are creatures of paradox.
Because of that we need to focus on a second thing. We need to;- b) Remember the strength available to us in Christ. The Christian calling is not one that tells us
to bury our heads in the dust, to grovel before the Almighty in some hope of
getting off the hook for the situations we find ourselves in. It's a calling
to lift our heads up high. Paul knew
that in his prison cell when he wrote these words about pressing onward. Though behind bars he looked past them and
saw stars. The light of Christ has
come. His voice calls us to take up
our cross and follow. And if we are to run that race, be sure, it must be in the strength that
only God's Spirit can bring to bear on our lives. To fulfill a high calling we need strength
from on high. We have known that
strength in the past. We wouldn't be
here if God had not, albeit in some small way, broken into our lives with His
strengthening love. He has enabled to
reach this point in our lives. Now He has so much more available for us.
Available strength in times of temptation, available strength in times
when life is filled with burdens or problems.
None of us goes through life in isolation or with only our own meager
resources but with the help of God. By the grace of God I pray that by the end of the year we will have an
album that's full of pictures and stories that testify that God has been with
us and that we have lived our life with Him always in mind. That our life has been subject to the
encompassing presence of an Almighty God. So hear again Paul's words to the Phillipian church; "I
do not think that I have already won the prize. I forget what is behind me and do my best
to reach what is ahead" (Phillipians 3:13). Forget what lies in the past.
Resentments, worries, failures.
Learn from them and leave them behind.
Do your best to reach what is ahead. Remember that you are only human
and that the only way to make it through to the end of the year, having known
God's blessing, is to travel through 2010 in the available strength of God's
love; the strength of the Holy Spirit, the living presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ in our hearts and lives. May God's blessing be
with you in this New Year. Adrian
Pratt |