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January 2003
HAPPY NEW YEAR
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January 2003
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Standing in front of Christmas and writing to you about the New Year feels more than a little strange. Yet, deadlines have a way of mercilessly placing requirements upon us. So, here now are some thoughts about the New Year.
Have you made any resolutions for 2003? I hope so! The calendar provides us with an excellent opportunity to consciously engage in setting the direction of our lives. The extent we seek to grow and the manner in which we enable growth are areas of life over which we have direct influence. It would be a mistake to miss this opportunity to make a positive effort to link this calendar change to something spiritually constructive.
As you might have already anticipated, I have a suggestion! After all, I am a pastor/preacher.
I hope this year we will grow in love. Not in some selfish sense...such as "More for me in 2003," that is the way to spiritual poverty. Instead, if we must use bumper-sticker-like phrasing, "More to Thee in 2003!" The "more" I intend here is love and the "Thee" is God.
What will that mean? Since we cannot make ourselves grow more in quantity, I suggest we commit ourselves to love with better quality. Better quality will move us from the self-centered behavior to an ever-increasing regard for others., It means, as persons of faith, to commit our will to doing what is right and for the betterment of others. To commit ourselves to courses of behavior that the Scriptures call righteous.
How do we sustain such a commitment? By following the ancient and clearly Wesleyan admonition to attend to the "means of grace." The means of grace are those proven ways that keep us sensitive to influences by the Holy Spirit. A few of those proven ways are: attending to private and public worship, regularly receiving the sacrament of communion, Christian conversation (Sunday School for example), and engaging in ministries of caring. Such practices enable the Holy Spirit to strengthen and direct us. Failures in these practices leave us weak and vulnerable to severe spiritual lapses.
For each of us 2003 provides the occasion to make determinations that improve the quality of our love. It is a secular event that we as Christians can claim for Divine purpose.
So, Happy New Year and let's grow in love!
Grace and peace,
David
David D. Reed