A New Year and a New Leaf

A planter on my desk holds several plants content to grow in overhead office lighting with occasional watering and a few encouraging words. They aren’t fussy plants and I’m good with that. Leaves are glossy green and though they grow very slowly, they are a pretty bit of life to have sitting on the desk next to me. Between Christmas and New Year, being in and out of the office more than normal, I was pleasantly surprised when I was greeted by a brand new leaf for New Year.

The color of new leaf green. It’s a beautiful color; the color of spring in and out of season. Fragile, unfurling and proudly declaring its newness; just like the new year. The year of 2015 has begun and holds all the beauty of a new leaf, delicate and spring green. Conversations of resolutions and new goals for a new year seem to abound. Some will be carried through, some will not; some will be altered and some will be given up for better things. But, I think for me it came like that leaf, unexpectedly and by surprise. 

The year of 2014 went through quickly, seemingly the calendar was on wheels and kept moving along at a faster and faster clip. The year changed before I even realized that it was time and what do you know but – poof, wah-lah and ta-da, the new year came! I’m not sure why things like that catch me by surprise sometimes, it’s not like I don’t know it is coming. But, there it is on the doorstep and new.

Have things like that ever caught you by surprise? You know it is coming, and yet somehow the actual arrival is sooner, unexpectedly sooner? My resolution, this third year in a row, is to choose a word that I will focus on through the year. Having it as a central focus helps to point directions in choosing books, devotions, conversations and seekings. My word for 2015 is with. It’s not a seemingly obvious word or maybe even a worthy of study word. Yet, as I was pondering this for the last month, this word “with” struck me over and over as incredibly powerful. It is a mutual word, with me – with you. It is an active word implying movement. It is a word of together and partnership.

 Welcome to the new year, enjoy the spring like green freshness the new year brings with us and to us.

Worship in a Box

A series of boxes hold Christmas decorations. Each box is completely full and packed tightly. It’s time to start decorating, but to my complete confusion I have found someone who insists that we only use the decorations in one box, one box that they have filled. I can see all of the other choices, but the response is an insistence to just use that one box. I agree, hoping that when we get started with one box, others will be added – building on momentum. One box gives us the bottom of the center pole for a Christmas tree, three of the needed branches, a dozen ornaments, and a door hanger for a wreath.

Sound odd? Sound like hyperbole? Sound like there is more to the story? 

There is! But, we need to take a small side trip to get to the ending.

A few years ago, I heard someone talking on the radio about choosing a different word each year to mull over, think on, study, and intentionally consider over the course of the comings and goings of the next 365 days. I have done this for a few years, and my word this year is worship.

In studying the word worship, I find that it is first mentioned about 700 years ago in a format we would find more familiar in an English root. Basically, it is defined as a sense of reverence for something that is worthy of honor, glory; a divine being. I love how big this word is!

After learning about where the word came from, I started looking around at how this word is used around me. I caught glimpses of that broadness, but most of the time I have found worship smashed into a box, kind of like those Christmas decorations. (Told you we would get back there eventually.) 

Remember the one odd ball box of decorations? I don’t decorate like that and I bet you don’t either. But I found worship compressed into one media - one style - one speed - one color, or maybe if it was a big box, two or three.  The one, two or three worship definitions smashed into the box has nothing wrong with it. Not wrong, but limited. I have struggled and grappled with this all year, looking for my own box limits in worshipping God. After all, who best to revere than Jesus? I have found many spots where I needed to expand and look at several boxes.

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I want to encourage you to consider, as you also haul the Christmas decorations in boxes through the house, what your worship boxes are. Will you join me in expanding horizons?

An Advent prayer from Common Prayers:

Give us ears to hear, O God, 

and eyes to watch, 
that we may know your presence in our midst 
during this holy season of joy 
as we anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The New Years Mirror

   There seem to be a great many sayings about looking backward, hind sight, and all of that. As New Years approaches, that seems to be the direction that receives a lot of attention. New Years Resolutions, ideas for what can be in the coming year becomes the focus. So, with all of that discussion, I started wondering if there were any direction of looking forward or back through life. I stumbled on a couple of verses in 2 Peter and thought that they were kind of interesting.
   2 Peter 3:2 says “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.” To recall, to look back. It’s like looking into the year’s rear view mirror. Recall the words, think about the commands that were given. There seems to be a time and place to look back. Then I noticed that in looking back, it wasn’t just a random direction. It was a specific place to look back to, not being lost in memory but with purpose. When I look back, I can look with regrets of might have been or could have been. Or, I can look back at was set in motion for a purpose, and a good one at that.
   Now, I can’t always be looking backwards. If I do, I’m going to run into something. It would be like trying to drive forward by looking through the rearview mirror – not much help! So, we drop down to 2 Peter 3:13 and “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” Looking forward to something wonderful and new is the direction. Think of the excitement and anticipation that is built as you look forward to something wonderful! And by looking forward, you are moving towards it.
   So, I guess I get to look backwards and forwards – with purpose and anticipation.