For people of a finite dimension new beginnings are important and we in the Community of Faith also tend toward this. It is the reason that New Years Eve is so celebrated around the world.
NYE marks the end of one year and the commencement of the next. For many of us this is significant in that regardless of how good, or bad, our last year was. The prospect exists that the year coming will be better. Whether this is a valid thought or just cock-eyed optimism is beside the point. For at least one day we can all have the same hope; things will be better tomorrow.
We tend to mark our life stages with new beginnings; from the day that we are born to the day we die is punctuated with firsts. Parents take note of their baby’s first tooth, step, word, and birthdays are something else again
After a while and not just a few firsts, we get on toward more grown up challenges. For in a way firsts are incremental challenges that track our path to maturity, in a teenager these are things like the first crush, the first kiss, with girls they have one that boys don’t which is their first bra.
Alright to this point I have been talking about a series of developmental “firsts”, there is a connection in all this to our Christ faith. This connection is that the above events occur once you might wish to have your first kiss back but it is gone any kiss after that is subsequent. So it is with Christ, we meet Him on the plain of encounter and by faith decide that He is who He is, if we move away from that point without Him it is called a relapse and we need to return to Him. The unbelievable thing is that when we do this thing He, full of love, will meet us where ever we are.
Where am I going with this? NYE is nearly upon us and so many people will be writing their lists and checking it thrice, their list of changes they intend to make in this year to come, lists like they will make at the end of next year.
Why do they do it? They do it because they believe that they are autonomously complete, that they are the masters of their fate and if everything falls right that they can do anything that they set their minds to. The Bible sets it out that this is anything but right. If this was right we would still be living in a perfect creation just like in the Garden of Eden
Just consider these two verses the first is the last word about King Rehoboam.
The second verse, spoken by Jesus, is following the challenge that the disciples were gathering grain on the Sabbath.
But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that's neither here nor there." Matthew 15:18-20
This is the God wonder that in ourselves we are unable to change even some part that we dislike, but with God we can “do all things.” We do not need NYE to bring change and in Christ we can change the world. He enables our personal change and He is waiting for us to get a vision for the world – a world that has been changed by His blood and a people who follow Him completely.
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