2024 A Year of Radical Amazement!

This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 NLT

Did you get what you wanted for Christmas? After a few well-placed hints, maybe you unwrapped the gift with excitement and there it was, the exact sweater you wanted, one size too small! No problem, you see the printed gift receipt and it can be returned. Maybe this is why for the past decade, the gift card has been the number one gift given and preferred. This would guarantee the right size, color, and style.

All is well unless you forget that you put the gift card in a drawer, or the store goes bankrupt in  January, or you use part of the value and never use the balance. Gift cards are great except according to experts, at any given time, as much as 19% of gift card balances remain un-redeemed, with 6% never getting used representing billions of dollars. Is this a windfall for the merchants? Not really, since they would prefer you to use the cards. Seventy-five percent of people who redeem their cards end up spending more than the value of the cards. Shoppers using gift cards are two and a half times more likely to pay full price for an item and they shop at stores they don’t normally visit. (facts from the article, The Economics of Unused Gift Cards)

What do un-redeemed gift cards have to do with the New Year? Everything, if you think of each day ahead is a gift from God. A precious gift worth redeeming every day. You are getting ready to be given 366 days (it is a leap year), will you redeem each day or forget to use them? “The priceless lesson in the New Year is that endings birth beginnings and beginnings birth endings. And in this elegantly choreographed dance of life neither ever find an end in the others.” (Craig Lounsbrough)

Treat each day as the gift it is from God. Isaiah and Peter both remind us, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” (I Peter 1:24, Isaiah 40:6) A great reminder to find and enjoy the beauty of the day. As poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

Enjoy more and worry less. The great philosopher and sage Charlie Brown once said, “You know how I always dread the whole year? Well, this time I’m only going to dread one day at a time.” Jesus fully understands our concerns and worries about life. Jesus asked his followers, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” To make sure they answered correctly, He gave them the answer, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (complete dialogue in Matthew 6:25-34)

Let worship replace fear. David stirred his inner being time after time through worship. He wrote the Psalms out of worship and praise. Psalm 77 says, “I recall all you have done, O Lord,’ Psalm 103 says, “Praise the LORD, my soul” or Psalm 104, “LORD my God, you are very great.” The word ‘remember’ in its various forms occurs over 250 times. This is a good thing for someone like me who can be forgetful. “Remembering is the key to rejoicing, and rejoicing is the key to finding faith for the coming year.” (Pete Greig)

What if I don’t know what’s ahead? No problem, God does! The same assurance that Moses gave Joshua is still valid for us today, “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deut 31:8) Jesus’ final assurance in Matthew is, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (28:20b)

“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.” (The Gate of the Year, published in 1912 by Minnie Louise Haskins)

Choose to live in 2024 in radical amazement. Granted we can’t know what is ahead in 2024 but we can choose what we will do with each day. I came across the phrase ‘radical amazement’ which I thought sums up well how to live each day. Abraham Joshua Heschel writes, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement because everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”

We get to live each day in radical amazement because of who we are in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17 NIV)

God, we can rejoice even in the most difficult days knowing Your love and grace overflows. Though we do not know what will happen in 2024, we can trust you in the journey. When fear grips us, give us calmness. When doubt pulls us down, let us look to your faithfulness. When crisis moves into our lives, give us peace to handle the situation. When each new day dawns, give us insight and wisdom to write our stories that will honor and glorify you.

Connie and I wish you the very best for this coming year. May each day be lived in the fullness, joy, and hope of who you are in Christ.

Happy New Year

God is great!