New

Sitting here watching a Bowl game.  Occasionally I’ll grab the laptop and surf a bit.  I woke up about 9:00, made a cup of coffee, read a bit of devotional material and then rewrote my sermon. Then headed to the health club where I pedaled away while reading the Trib.  I’m trying my best to ignore my bigger ‘to do’ list and just relax.

Such is the start of my new year.

Scripture tells us that at the end of earthly time God’s intent is to make all things new.  Maybe it’s because I’m getting older but that yearning for the ‘newness’ of God seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.  And I wonder if it is possible to really live into ‘what is yet to come’ even now?  I think so.

New.  It’s a bit of an attitude. It involves discipline and resolve. Certainly, it requires abandonment of vices and coming to grips with the past. For sure it’s allowing God to do his work in us and despite of us.

New. The world yearns for it.  Yet we won’t trust God for it.  In vicious cycles of insanity we continue to do those things that cause hurt expecting a different outcome.  Why do we fail, so often, to remember  the victorious cycles of sanity that produce the color and vibrancy we crave?

New.  I think of the heroes and heroines in my life who have been given a vision of what God intends to do.  Often these are the quiet ones who go unnoticed but practice the simple gestures of kindness that brighten our day.  Others tackle the bigger issues of life, raising their voice for the voiceless.  They champion the abused, the poor, the neglected, the under resourced and the marginalized.  And in their example we get a glimpse of what heaven might be like.

New. Anita and I went to a movie the other day called ‘The King’s Speech’.  It reminded me of the beauty of the arts and the creative process.  The desire is to linger as one encounters the genius of others.  It happens at concerts, in art museums, at plays and with chance encounters with street musicians.  It’s a magic that transports me from the humdrum of life into a world of possibilities.

New.  Happens now.  As my spiritual director says:  “Find the presence of God in the present moment.”  In this moment lies all that is necessary for all that we need.  

In New Year 2011 may you find the all that God wants you to discover.