I am just waiting for facebook friends and acquaintances to start sharing their new year’s resolutions. The new year for many of us is a good place to start again. We may look back on this year and wish we ate better, spent more time with loved ones, or less time on our phones and computers…the list goes on. When we look back what effect does it have on how we move forward? For some, it provides the motivation to begin a new routine to work towards a different reality for 2018 and for others the effect is guilt or regret that we didn’t do better but nothing seems to change in the future.
You may know which choice I think is more life giving, but in case you don’t, I am all for trying a new routine. I believe that Jesus in all his ministry was a promoter of new beginnings. He didn’t say we had to wait for a calendar year to change but he did frequently invite people to turn a different way, to make a different choice, to live into the live of God’s making not their own. It is easy to read in the bible about fishermen leaving their nets, about a young rich ruler that isn’t quite ready, or about women who witness the world changing at the entrance of a tomb and think “wow, those are great stories about extraordinary times.” And without thinking too much about how that invitation has also be offered to me, I go about my day, letting transformation pass me by.
However, there are days when I hear Jesus’ invitation clearly, as a call to me, to leave whatever I am doing to follow. Even if what I am doing is something that has helped me become a more faithful disciple of Christ. The good things we do and the ways we practice our faith can be stumbling blocks if they keep us from answering God’s call to new life. A call that changes as the world changes around us…as we change.
Where are you these days? Do you feel open to God’s call? Are you waiting for Jesus’ next invitation? What if Jesus have turned a corner ahead of us? Are we willing to turn too?
As the new year comes into view I pray that we will all reflect on what the past has taught us and look with hope to what the future brings us into.
Edmonton Moravian Church 