Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this
command today. (Deuteronomy
15:15)
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in
Christ Jesus.
(I Thessalonians 5:18)
Christmas is over, in some
ways, much too soon. In other ways, not soon enough. I’d love to hold on to the
spiritual part for another month, but I’m glad the “stuff and nonsense” is done.
Another holiday looms on the horizon: New Year’s Day. And somehow, New Year’s
Day 2020 seems more significant than New Year’s Day 2019. Maybe it’s just the
beginning of a new decade, but technically, every new year begins and ends a
decade. It’s just that only ten percent of them begin a “magical” decade that
has a corresponding decimal number. Or, maybe the science fiction we’re read and
watched over the years has spoken of the glory that would supposedly be ours this
year.
As is my habit, I’m beginning
the week between Christmas and New Years with a call to remember. Before we
open the books on 2020, we need to close the books on 2019.
The first order of business,
I think, is forgiving others. Who has offended you? Who has offended me? Is
there anyone to whose home you would not go, even if invited, or anyone you would
not want to have show up at your door because of bad feelings between you? Don’t
carry that forward to next year.
In a similar way, we need
to forgive ourselves. I tend to assume that I have offended many. I’ve offended
myself by not exercising enough self-control. I didn’t do many things I wanted
to do, and I did many I didn’t. For me, those are standard. I may not even be
able to identify all the ways I’ve offended myself. I need to forgive myself. Forgiveness
is the first step in closing the books on a year, but it’s like music. You are
likely to return to it repeatedly in the middle of a song.
The other side of the
remembering coin is celebration and gratitude. What positive things happened?
How were you able to bless? How were you blessed? For what are you thankful? Dare
yourself to make a list. Once you begin, you may find the list to be longer
than you thought.
This past year, I have been
hugely blessed, given opportunities, rescued from mistakes, and protected from
my own foolishness. I’m pretty sure I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve come
through challenges and there have been failures. Who of us hasn’t? My life
feels like the window in the motorhome, still in place, but shattered into several
thousand pieces and held together by two veneers of contact paper and some
plastic.
And in the end, as I
consider all the good, all the bad, all the difficult, and all that just fell
into place, the conclusion I must reach is that I was greatly blessed in 2019. For
all the negative that comes so easily to mind when I think back, the positive
slips in more quietly but with greater strength.
As I think of this past year,
the image that comes to mind is the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife
State Park. In a lot of ways, it’s a zoo that has almost entirely animals that
are native to Florida. They make an exception for a hippo named Louis. But it’s
not just a zoo. It’s a wildlife rehab facility. Some animals there are nursed
back to health and returned to the wild. The long-term residents have problems
that make it impossible to free them. Then there are the freeloaders: wild
manatees and birds who hang out because it’s convenient. In some ways, it’s
hard to visit. If we’re going to visit a zoo, we’d prefer the exhibits to be
shining examples of their kind, not cripples.
This year has been a time
of rehabilitation for me, I think. Sometimes, I suspect that my problems are
too great, and that I’ll never be released back to the “wild,” but I have two
havens where I am able to live in spite of my flaws, injuries, and failures.
As I approach the end of
the year, these are things I need to release, and onto which I need to hold. Overall, as tough as the year was, I am still thankful. How about you?
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