new year 2012

We turn the corner and I see the church parking lot already full. Immediately I wonder- that is not usually the case when you think you are early… We open the door and see the pews filled up, the congregation on their feet. The familiar creed bounces off the walls at us as we scramble to find seats, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins…” Kind folks smile and scoot over and make places for us.

Is there no where better to be on the first morning of the new year than in worship?

Typically I have scoffed at New Year resolutions, those good intentions that all too quickly seem to turn into broken promises and abandoned goals. And yet, this New Year’s Day and the day to follow convict me- THIS is how I want to live. The pastor exhorts us, “Our Christianity shows itself as we actively live out the law of love in this fallen world.” The teaching on the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) reminds me, again, both how we are to treat others, yes, but also that Christ is the only One who enables us to love others well, to love as we want to be loved. I am humbled because I am broken, but by His wounds I am healed.

We participate in communion, that mysterious sacrament, “a bond and a pledge” with Christ and with each other in the body of believers. On her blog, A Holy Experience, Ann Voskamp writes,
The bread is passed from hand to hand. We share it. We break it. We remember. We sustain on the brokenness of Christ. Could I really not run from mine?


We pass the cup. I swallow down this grace I never get over and never want to get over and I close my eyes and Christ alone washes clean. Christ alone washes clean. We begin the new year the only way we can begin anything — with Communion with God. With brokenness.

The rest of the day follows that communion, fellowship spent with others in Sabbath rest. We eat together, and sit together, and talk together, and laugh together with the ease that only years of familiarity and commonality brings. The next day we travel to the beach and the winds blow hard. We find sand in our ears and eyes and noses and mouths. But the sun is bright and we are not rushed by the usual busyness of life's demands. In those hours, I am content and long for nothing more, and that, that, is how I want to live the rest of the year.

Voskamp continues,
Contentment isn’t a state of organization, a weight on the scale, a state of better: better kids, better marriage, better health, better house. Contentment is never a matter of circumstances; contentment is always a state of communion — a daily embracing of God. A thankfulness for all the gifts – and moments and life, just as He gives it. Trying harder may only bring harder trials and contentment, it won’t be found in the resolutions, but in the revolutions – in the turning round to God.

THAT is my resolution for this year- to find contentment in the revolutions, “in the turning round to God,” in all things for His glory. To love others well. To move purposefully but not be hurried. To be quick to thankfulness and to be instant in prayer. And that, that, will be all grace.