January 2017 Meditations: NEW!

WEEK 1  NEW!
1.1.17             2 Cor 5:17 MSG

Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.  The old life is gone; a new life burgeons.

         A fresh start.  It is a new year, a new document on my computer.  I haven’t really selected what I want to use for my morning thoughts yet, so I will concentrate on the NEW YEAR this first week.  Newness. 

         Grace grants us that fresh start, each year, each morning, each moment.  A fresh slate gives us opportunity to celebrate the good, to focus on positive action.  Our failures can be put behind us. 

         I’m not sure what connection icicles have to the scripture, but I have been fascinated by the sparkling fingers of ice dancing around the eaves of our house.  Rick knocks them down, and just days later, they are back!  On the west side, one icicle reaches BELOW the bottom of the window.  When the afternoon sun hits, patterns of light and shadow fill the spires.  So pretty.  So God. 

God…you grant us newness.  May we use the opportunity for good.  Amen.  

1.2.17               

Celebrate what you want to see more of.  (Tom Peters)

Celebrate God!  Sing together – everyone!  (Psalm 32:11)

         I guess this is another way of saying “Focus on the Positive”.  If we reinforce the behaviors of ourselves and others that are good, positive, and encouraging, we will find that kind of activity more often.  If we are looking for it, it changes our attitude and approach to life.  So celebrate the God-moments!  Celebrate kindness!  Celebrate service!  Celebrate positive relationships!  And don’t keep the celebration to oneself….let people know!  Acknowledge and recognize acts of others that are cause for celebration. 

God of Grace…May we celebrate that which mirrors you.  Amen.  

1.3.17

Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity – in the finest sense of the word.  (Goran Persson)

         ‘Fellow members of humanity’.  One family.  One people.  One world.  Taking care of each other.  Regardless of religion, ethnic background, status, or political beliefs.  This is a resolution we might unconsciously break every day but one we can still aspire to and attempt every day.

God of all….May I treat all I encounter with respect and love.  Amen.

1.4.17

Resolution 1: I will live for God.  Resolution 2: If no one else does, I still will.   (Jonathan Edwards)

         Jonathan Edwards was one of America’s leading theologians of the Reformed Tradition in the early 1700’s.  He wrote prolifically and with a bend toward science.  He believed Creation manifest the presence of God.  He was the instigator for The Great Awakening. 

         Edwards New Year’s Resolution is stark in its simplicity, yet reflects the absolute integrity of its author.  God first, only God. 

May I live my life fully for you, O God, in spite of conditions around me.  Amen.  

1.5.17       Romans 6:3 MSG

When we came up out of the water, we entered into a new country of grace – a new life in a new land!

         New grace. New life. New land.  When we are baptized, everything is NEW!  Can we think of December 31 as a re-baptism each year?  We are able to start over with a clean slate of grace!  Sunday is the celebration of Jesus’ baptism in the waters of the Jordan River.  We too are marked as beloved by God through the waters of baptism and given that fresh start of newness. 

         We drove over to the Portland area today with Mom – a ‘transfer’ of sorts to put her into the care of Luke who met us in Troutdale, took Mom back to Beaverton for a rest, and then to West Linn to pick up a car from my sister and drive Mom back to Bandon.  Whew!  It marks a new period of quasi independence for Mom in her Bandon home, a new year of job search for Luke to reenter some kind of ministry, and the landscape was filled with the whiteness of fresh snow and clear blue skies.  Newness. 

God of Grace…. Thank you for the new life granted to us through baptism.  Amen. 

1.6.17       John 13:34 MSG

Let me give you a new command:  Love one another.

         Another NEW scripture for this first week of the NEW YEAR!  And one of the best.  Jesus gives a new command to simply love one another.  Nothing necessarily more, but nothing less either.  This kind of love means to respect and treat one another as we wish to be treated.  To make kindness and acceptance our primary goals.  I think this is a resolution or challenge we can all take, one we all should take. 

God of love….Help me to share your love with all.  Amen. 

PS.  Happy Epiphany!!  The Twelve Days of Christmas are officially over!  So....I'll draw an Epiphany Star filled with LOVE!

1.7.17       Revelation 21:5 MSG

The Enthroned continued, ‘Look!  I am making everything new!’

         I figured I should ‘end’ my NEW week with the final book of the Bible, which reminds us it isn’t the end, but a new beginning!  (Alphas and Omegas can be so confusing!)  God can and does make everything new when we enter a relationship with God.  We have a new attitude, a new way of looking at service, materialism, and friendships.  New removes barriers and the blinders we wear. 

         Am I seeing the new?  Am I actively working to make changes in my perspective on life and people? 

God of New…. Create in me a new person, in relationship with you.  Amen.