A shade over 24 more hours to the end of 2019 and the 2nd decade of the third millennium. I can’t say I’m eager for 2019 to be gone; it has been a decent enough year, certainly my life has been without any great calamities this year. On the other hand, this has been a year of positives worth celebrating. The church I am privileged to serve has been amazing, rising to financial challenges and cheerfully accepting new ministry opportunities. This has been a year of blessings.
Soon enough, we will enter the third decade of this millennium. There will be momentous opportunities and important turning points ahead. 2020 may well prove to be a year memorized by history students for centuries to come. Or, we may look back and see sanity and cooperation restored and the beginnings of significant progress.
Several times in the past few weeks, I have been struck by how long ago events in the past now have taken place. Is it possible that 1980 was forty years ago? This fall will mark twenty-five years of ordained ministry for me. In many ways, the years have passed so quickly, and in other ways, it feels as if ministry has been a part of my life for much longer. That’s part of what it means to have passed into such a decrepit old age.
My prayers for this New Year are to find new levels of closeness between my own spirit and God’s Holy Spirit, to walk more closely with Christ, to let that Holy Spirit continue to burn away the resistant imperfections that stubbornly remain in me. May God continue to shape and transform me, molding me to reflect more the love of Christ for those who know me; especially to be more authentically loving to those closest to me, the ones who see me at my most imperfect.
May God bring to you the deepest desires of your heart; and may your heart draw you nearer to God, who loves you beyond all measure.
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