Gary N. McCluskey, Pastor
If it is Happy New Year, must something be new? You know, “Out with the old, in with the new…all that kind of talk. Or is just the fact we now date the year 2020 new enough?
New Year reminds us nothing is static. Not time, not life, not even faith. Sometimes we really do not need such reminding. Change and newness seem to confront us at most every turn. Yet, what is it you will be doing January 2nd or January 6th or January 7th? I suspect for most of us we will be doing what we typically do on Thursdays, Mondays or Tuesdays. Our morning routines will be the same. Maybe there will be the diversion of de-decorating the house and taking down the tree and lights. Yet we will perform our usual tasks and encounter the usual people.
Newness and change do not deny the importance of our daily life. What we do every day was once new to us. What we do every day is how we have patterned our life to serve ourselves and others as we use our days to work, volunteer, read, paint, sew, create, and live our lives. It need not be boring or unimportant to continue as we have. It can be a form of service as we live out our calling to love the neighbor and serve those in need.
There is always much about ourselves and our lives that ought to be made new. Yet we cannot discount what it is we do day after day, week after week, and even year after year. Discipleship has its need to be made new. Discipleship also has its need to plod along trusting we plod neither in vain nor alone. Celebrate, make some changes, take down the decorations and keep chugging along. May it all make for a Happy New Year!