New Year's Day

I know that it’s three day’s into the New Year, but it’s never too late to write a blog celebrating that fact. Actually, there probably is a time when it’s too late to celebrate the new year…like around Thanksgiving, but we’re still on the front end of this puppy.

On New Year’s Day, we watched an old U2 concert that took place in Ireland around the start of this decade. The one at Slane Castle. We were watching with family, and one of the songs they sing happened to be titled: New Year’s Day. I think there are a few ways to listen to this song, but one of them is through the lens of Jesus’ love, hearing His Voice singing the words “I will be with you again.”

And what struck me as I listened was, this is HOPE…that tomorrow will be better than today, that someday true righteous justice will reign, all harms will be healed, and God himself will live with us. This all seems to turn on a dime around the new year…there is incredible optimism that 2009 will be better than 2008.

Even in the Bible, in the middle of the Book of Lamentations (which is mostly describing the worst year EVER for the Israelites), we find this incredible HOPE:


The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22,23 NLT


Maybe it’s my own innate optimism, but I absolutely believe this is going to be a year of great adventure. I believe it will be a year of great selflessness. I believe it will be a year where heroic acts are done by all sorts of wonderful, ordinary people. A year of fresh mercies. And I believe that this will be a year in which Jesus is honored. At least, that’s what I’m excited to go after.

And I’ve got some personal goals, too, which I’m refusing to call resolutions. These I actually want to work on all year long:

Be ALIVE. Be FREE. Be LOVED. Be LOVING.

Happy New Year!