Every Day Is New Year's Day

 

Here we are, the day after Christmas, and our thoughts immediately turn to the new year.

Will the next year bring fortune or failure? What can I do to be a better person or make a better living? What resolutions should I make and how can I keep them?

This next year is a blank sheet of paper, waiting to be written on; a clean slate; a fresh start. I need to take full advantage of this opportunity!

Wow.

That's a lot of pressure to put on something as arbitrary as the beginning of a new year.

Yes, you heard me...arbitrary.

The only reason January is "the first month of the year" is because the Roman king Numa Pompilius said so. It used to be March (which makes more sense of the names of OCTober and DECember as the 8th and 10th months). England and her North American colonies didn't observe January as the first month until 1752. Before then, they celebrated New Year's Day on March 25th.

Besides, according to Carolyn Arends, EVERY day is New Year's Day:

I buy a lot of diaries, fill them full of good intentions

Each and every New Year's Eve, I make myself a list

All the things I'm gonna change, until January Second

So this time I'm making one promise

This will be my resolution: Every day is New Year's Day

This will be my resolution: Every day is New Year's Day.

Well I believe it's possible, I believe in new beginnings

I believe in Christmas Day, and Easter Morning, too

And I'm convinced it's doable, cuz I believe in second chances

Just the way that I believe in you

This will be my resolution: Every day is New Year's Day

This could start a revolution

Every day is one more chance to start all over

One more chance to change and grow

One more chance to grab a hold of grace and never let it go

This will be my resolution: Every day is New Year's Day

This could start a revolution: Every day is New Year's Day

©1997 Running Arends Music

https://youtu.be/mKZa4IYT-oI?si=QMlb7nuBSx3HKudY

Truth is...I can find a fresh start every day because of the truth of 2nd Corinthians 5:17  -  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. (AMP)

Christmas On!

 

I need to thank Carolyn Arends for bringing the following John Blase poem to my attention.

In the face of seasoned waves of evil

that we would sing that old noel,

that we would hang lights on branches,

that we would give gifts to others

even if that gift is only ourselves --

this, this is a defiance seemingly impotent

against the principalities and powers who

daily conspire to convince us that

we are alone and love is a lie.

But do not be deceived for the demons themselves

tremble at such quaintness.

Sisters and brothers,

Christmas on.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

This is the reason I still get a lump in my throat at the end of the silly song by the Royal Guardsmen about Snoopy and the Red Baron. The Red Baron forces Snoopy's "World War I flying ace" to land, then pops open a bottle and makes a toast, "Merry Christmas, my friend!"

https://youtu.be/0-hWZGIWe_U?si=T6p-ot5xLcOrJbBl

Truth is...We are not alone. Love is not a lie. Yahweh did not send his son into the world to condemn us, but to save us. Yes, no matter how jaded and divided our culture becomes, I will Christmas on like nobody's business.

Any Given Sunday

I remember the first time I got absolutely gobsmacked with the world-wide nature of being The Church.

Beloved and I were on our first cross-cultural mission experience. On Sunday morning in David, Panama, we sat in what was used as a lottery office the rest of the week. We sang songs. (Well, we hummed along to songs that were sung in Spanish.) We prayed. We read Scripture. And as we ate the bread and drank the juice that reminded us of the sacrifice of Jesus, I happened to glance at my watch and realized that folks back in the church in Indiana where I was serving at the time were eating and drinking at that very time as well.

And an overwhelming sense of unity with all Jesus-followers across the expanse of both space and time burst my heart wide open.

And now, years later, Yahweh brings to my attention a little ditty by Carolyn Arends called Any Given Sunday. It reminds me of all the things people are missing out on when they decide they don't need to be part of a church family.

https://youtu.be/PAi2ybk3Qt4

Truth is...I've been tempted to get depressed lately at seeing so many get so comfortable in NOT gathering together as a church community ("as is the habit of some" Hebrews 10:25). There is a pervasive take-it-or-leave-it attitude that reveals our consumer orientation toward corporate worship. Granted, there are many a local congregation that fall far short of the goal of true fellowship and mutual encouragement, but it will NEVER happen if people who desire those things stay away. If I'm not part of the solution, then I'm part of the problem.

Singing in the Face of Death

Sitting in a church service is no guarantee that your life will continue.

But having your earthly life end is no guarantee that God's Truth will be silenced.

Singer, songwriter, author, speaker, wife, mother, blogger Carolyn Arends has shared a piece in reaction to the Charleston killings that gently reminds us that there is hope even in the midst of tragedy.

Click here to read her short piece and listen to the song The Last Word. (There is also a link to Steven Curtis Chapman's new song, You Will Not Be Overcome.) 

Truth is...every day, everyone's life can include a desire, and a reasonable reason, to despair. For all of eternity, those who trust in the name of Jesus can live with a greater reason to stand strong and have hope.

Singing Yourself to Death

Speaking as a guy who has not only sung but taught a large number of silly old camp songs throughout the last 50+ years, I burst into tears when I read these opening paragraphs from Carolyn Arends' article/blog, "Going Down Singing." You can read the whole thing here: http://angelwrestle.blogspot.com/2011/04/going-down-singing-why-we-should.html

The day before he died, my father wore what his doctors called the "Star Wars mask"—a high-tech oxygen system that covered most of his face. Pneumonia made his breathing extremely labored, but that didn't keep him from chatting.

"Pardon?" my mom would ask patiently, trying to decipher his muffled sounds. Exasperated, he'd yank off the mask, bringing himself to the brink of respiratory arrest to ask about hockey trades or complain about the hospital food.

After several hours, he gave up on conversation. He started singing.

"What are you humming?" my mom asked. My dad repeatedly tried to answer through the mask before yanking it off again. "With Christ in the Vessel, I Can Smile at the Storm," he gasped. "Wow," murmured my mom, before singing it with him.

My dad learned "With Christ in the Vessel" at Camp Imadene in 1949, the summer he asked Jesus into his 8-year-old heart. Six decades later, hours before his death, that silly old camp song was still embedded in his soul and mind, and he was singing it at the top of his nearly-worn-out lungs.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Truth is...there are far worse things to have permanently fixed in one's brain than "We Are One in the Spirit" and "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."

Taste the Soup, I Dare You

I have been privately recommending Carolyn Arends' blog, Wrestling With Angels, for quite a while now. Today, let me get more specific about that.

The posting from September 26, 2012, "Taste the Soup", is a piece that says what hardly anybody is saying nowadays: showing up at church, even when you don't feel like it, is important. I hope the following excerpts whet your appetite for clicking this link and reading the whole thing.

I've been sliding into pews (or modern equivalents) from infancy; my vocation has taken me to hundreds of churches around the world. I've met some of my dearest friends and endured some of my darkest betrayals in youth rooms, foyers, and sanctuaries. I've cried, sung, prayed, committed, disconnected, recommitted, scribbled sermon notes, doodled, been wounded, been healed, encountered the Mystery, and dozed off—sometimes all in the same service.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -

The triune God has always been into community. And community, I am forced to admit, ultimately requires meeting together with flesh and blood folks I cannot "block" or "unfriend" should they become annoying. It means getting close enough to hug and to arm wrestle, to build (and sometimes hold) each other up, even as we risk letting each other down.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Truth is...there are far too many commandments about doing things to and with "one another" and "each other" for any of us to think it can be "just me and Jesus." There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian, and if there was, he would at least have Tonto.

Lessons from an Usher

I follow a blog by Christian musician, Carolyn Arends, titled Wrestling with Angels. In her own words, it's "where I park my Christianity Today columns and other pieces I've written."

In catching up on older posts, I found her piece from December 28, 2011, Lessons from an Usher, to be particularly profound. My favorite paragraph begins with "I don't generally hear the audible voice of God. But that particular afternoon, I could have sworn I heard a chuckle."

I'm hoping you'll take a couple minutes and read it. Click here.

Truth is...I'm proud to pass on this bit of truth about humility.