Expecting the New Year

The New Year brings things.

Things to look forward to.  Things to be anxious about.  Things to hold fast.  Things to surrender.  Will we get things in the right categories?  For some of us the New Year is invigorating. A fresh start.  We feel up to the challenge. For some of us the New Year’s is daunting.  Overwhelming.  Parts of it, we would rather not walk.

The truth is, we do not really know what this new year will bring.  Some moments will surprise us in nice ways.  Other moments we will not feel qualified to meet the task at hand.   In all moments we are called to show up, not in our own strength, but in Christ’s strength. 

“A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the even ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  Isaiah 40:3-5

It is not for us to prepare the plan, but rather to prepare the way.  It is less about making plans and more about clearing them, making space for the things we do not expect but God will use.  He is coming in His glory, both in a physical sense on the day appointed, and in the moments we will allow Him to enter every moment of this coming year.  *"May every heart prepare Him room", not only at Christmas time, but in every moment of the coming year!

*From the song “Joy to the World”, by Isaac Watts