New Year, New Day, New Beginning

I'm writing this post early because I just have to share these words by Henri Nouwen in his book "Here and Now: Living in the Spirit." In the past several years, I had grown from someone who enthusiastically made summer/fall/winter break to-do lists and new year's resolution to someon who became disappointed in unmet goals and the lack of discipline to achieve what I had envisioned. I grew skeptical about these lists but I think I've changed in the last few years; I've learned much more about accepting failures and the grace God gives. Anyway, here's an excerpt from Nouwen's book that I hope will encourage you at the cusp of another new year!

"A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us 'I have a gift for you and can't wait for you to see it!' Imagine.

Is it possible that our imagination can lead us to the truth of our lives? Yes, it can! The problem is that we allow our past, which becomes longer and longer each year, to say to us: 'You know it all; you have seen it all, be realistic; the future will be just another repeat of the past. Try to survive it as best as you can.' 

So what are we to do? We must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying: 'Let me show you where I live among my people. My name is 'God-with-you'. I will wipe away all the tears from your eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone' (see Revelation 21:2-5)

We must choose to listen to that voice, and every choice will open us a little more to discover the new life hidden in the moment, waiting eagerly to be born."

I can only imagine

 I have known this song since I was in the teens but I never grasped the meaning of the song until today in our afternoon prayer meeting at COCM. We read the passage from Revelations 21 and then sang it. I was struck by the picture of one day meeting my Saviour and a deep longing for the day when I finally see God. We often live our day to day life just by the day to day. We focus on the struggles of today, the frustrations of the challenges we face now, or the pleasures we want to pursue to make us happy at this moment, and the successes we would like to have in the next few years. But we rarely remember to look forward to what we are to look forward to the most--an eternity with the Glorious and Almighty God who loves us so much that His plan for those He loves is to give up His Only Son Jesus Christ to give us hope for today and for eternity. It is good to imagine that day. That day when we will meet our Saviour. What a glorious day that will be.
Revelations 21: 1-6

'Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.'