A WORD FOR TODAY, December 30, 2014 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. Romans 12:1-3, ASV We have reached the end of another year. Ive already seen numerous pieces looking back over the past year, pointing out the good things and the bad. We will see stories about those who died, what has been accomplished and other changes in the world. A number of my friends on Facebook have been posting how desperate they are for this year to be over since it has been nothing but trouble for them. Others are looking forward to what the coming year has in store. One of my favorite humorists has written a lengthy article, as he does every year, about everything that happened month by month. Dave Barry always finds a way to make you see the light side of even the worst news. Take, for instance, the disappearance of the Malaysian airplane that has still not be found. Dave Barry wrote that 2014 was a year of mysteries including, A huge airliner simply vanished, and to this day nobody has any idea what happened to it, despite literally thousands of hours of intensive speculation on CNN. The disappearance and probable death of the people on board is tragic, but even more so may have been the extensive coverage about the plane that led to nowhere. It is good to look back, but it is especially good for us to look back and laugh at our failures. It helps us to take ourselves a little less seriously, to realize that most of our problems are really not that bad. It helps us to keep life in perspective, to realize that our attitude is half the battle. Most of those people who have posted their desperation for this year to be over have not really had anything out of the ordinary happen to them. I understand; we want the difficult times to pass quickly so that we can get to better times. However, sometimes the difficult times are made more difficult because we face them with fear, pity, frustration, confusion and anger. Two people can experience the exact same thing, but the one who lives by faith will experience it with hope and peace and will see how God is transforming something in us to make us better. We arent only looking back; we are also looking forward. We are thinking about what the new year will mean for our lives. Many people are thinking about resolutions. Ive gone back and forth with the whole idea of resolutions. Sometimes I think they are a good idea, sometimes I think it is just a waste of time since most of our resolutions are broken within months, or weeks, or days. I heard a radio commentator say something that really made sense today: resolutions are good because they remind us that we need to be transformed. None of us are perfect, we all have things about us that need to change. We might fail; as a matter of fact, we probably will, and thats ok. Recognizing our need for change is half the battle and accepting our imperfections is the first victory. The bad stuff that happens that is not a laughing matter. Death and illness, loss of job and friends, natural disasters and tragedies should not be taken lightly. However, as we look back over the last year, lets remember that there were lots of reasons to rejoice. As we look forward, lets remember that we arent perfect and that there is much about our lives that can be changed. With this attitude we can see the bright side, laugh at the foolishness and face anything that will come in 2015, good or bad.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 22:31:58 +0000
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