Another Year Over
Steve and I were listening to a song yesterday, and realized to our shock that anyone under 30 was not alive when this song was popular! Yikes! How can that be?! It can’t be THAT long ago, can it?! Three DECADES have just flown by?!
And here we are today,
Another year over. Already. Again.
Last year I wrote about how I like to pray and ask God for a “Word for the Year“–a truth that God wants me to really learn in that year. This year, I feel like God is prompting me to ask for a “Word of Truth” EVERY DAY! In this new year, Jesus is asking me to refocus from dwelling on the lies that I believe, that others speak, and instead focus on the truth of who Jesus is, how Jesus sees me, how God made me.
In Mark 8, we find the disciples concerned over food and thinking that’s what Jesus is talking about in a warning he spoke to them about the “yeast of the Pharisees”. Luckily, Jesus speaks up and reminds them of the truth: he has provided miraculously on two accounts feeding the masses (with plenty leftover!). Those miraculous moments would have also served as windows to how Jesus is like God, reminding them of the time in Israel’s past when God sustained the Israelites in the desert with daily bread, manna from heaven. Jesus helps them refocus on the deeper point he is trying to make: don’t be unbelieving like the Pharisees, trust Jesus.
And so, I invite you to join with me, to join with the disciples throughout time, in shifting our focus from fear to faith in this new year. Which reminds me of another song…this one, over 50 years old already! “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon. The chorus goes:
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And that is my prayer for us all!
–Melissa Logsdon, NCF Associate Pastor