Beginnings!

There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven:

a time to give birth and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to uproot;

a time to kill and a time to heal;

a time to tear down and a time to build;

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing;

a time to search and a time to count as lost;

a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to tear and a time to sew;

a time to be silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace. –Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (CSB)

These haunting words from Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes are so appropriate as we begin a new year. In welcoming 2023, we bid farewell to 2022 and for many, good riddance. The year brought various challenges as well as blessings. John Walton writes, “The message of Ecclesiastes is that the course of life to be pursued is a God-centered life. The pleasures of life are not intrinsically fulfilling and cannot offer lasting satisfaction, but they can be enjoyed as gifts from God. Life offers good times and bad and follows no pattern such as that proposed by the retribution principle. But all comes from the hand of God. Adversity may not be enjoyable, but it can help make us the people of faith we ought to be.”

I am not sure if Paulo Coelho ever read these verses but his thoughts seem to mirror Solomon’s understanding of time. “One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

For so many of us, 2022 began with good intentions, resolutions, and dreams. Yet as the days and weeks turned into months, it seemed impossible to keep many of those well-intentioned plans. The good intentions of losing weight didn’t happen, the daily routine of exercise sounded good, and trying to do something new was left on the table unfinished – yet we tried.

Edward Curtis writes, “Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people are encouraged to reflect on who God is, to study his works in creation and in history, and to meditate on the truth he has revealed about himself. They are instructed to carefully examine the world for examples of his steadfast love. Such disciplines keep before God’s people some of those “grounds for trusting.”

Happy New Year! Whether stranger or friend, you are greeted with these words. However, you may find yourself in a place that is neither “happy” nor “new”. The only thing you can resonate with that greeting is “year.” I will never forget Connie and my first New Year in Bophuthatswana, Africa. The country was in the midst of the worst drought in decades, the temperature was beyond hot, nothing was the same as what we left and we had lost our baby through a miscarriage. As the midnight hour struck, you could hear crowds of people walking up and down the road yelling: happy, happy, happy.

I realized that happy is simply an adjective. Though our lives had been uprooted, there would come a time to plant new roots. We had wept but there would come a time to laugh at the sound of a baby’s cry. We would learn to keep close to what was most important and throw away the other.

Much like pulling off the highway at a lookout point to take in the scenic beauty, the new year provides a similar “lookout point” for us to stop and meditate upon where we are in life. Solomon, in reflecting upon the state of his life wrote, “I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven.”

Where do you find yourself in these times?  Have you been in a time of mourning and now you are longing to dance again? Have you found yourself forced to be silent over some issue but now you know it is the time to speak out? Have you found yourself filled with anger and hatred over something and now your heart desires to love again?  Use these eight verses as questions for your soul. Find some time in the next few weeks to spiritually pull into a “lookout point” and prayerfully let God speak into your life.

I don’t know how people celebrated the new Year in Jesus’ days. Most likely the greeting would be the same as any day, Shalom. Jesus probably didn’t say Happy New Year but, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”—John 14:27 (CSB)

Lord, thank you for never leaving us, nor forsaking us. As we begin this new calendar year, let us look completely to you in those times when you will need to provide comfort to those who mourn, strength to those rebuilding what is torn down, wisdom to know how to speak and celebrate with us in laughter and joy.  In this coming year, let us daily experience Your Shalom in our lives.

God is great!