start a new year with new thoughts!

 "Every day, we ought to renew our purpose." ~Thomas a Kempis

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2

 




It is the end of yet another year and the start of a new one. Have you made your resolutions yet? I chuckle because I think of so many that I have made in the past that I held firm to for maybe a few weeks at best. Lose weight? Yup! Work out more? Sure! Turn down that last piece of cake? Why not? and so it goes!

However the resolutions that we need to make and keep are the ones that have a lasting impact. The ones that have us promising to love one another, even as Jesus loved us. To look after each other...to not use others for our own gain. To hold each other up as a sign of goodness and light. To not speak ill of another, to embrace the stranger within our midst. What is that....you say you can't because of why? Because he is black, she is agnostic, he is a Jew...maybe it's an aunt who is an alcoholic...maybe a son who turned into a drug addict. Maybe it's a long lost child who has finally realized that home is the greatest word there is...do you accept him or her back into your life? What are you waiting for? Every journey always begins with that first step...one step followed by another.

So many people have gone before us to pave that path. Ever since they have left us however, that path has become rutted....potholes, weeds and other dangers lurk...yet all it takes is an effort from each of us to make it clean once more. Who am I referring to? Why, many of those whom we consider saints...Peter, John, Mary of Magdela...even our own modern day people such as Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, John Lennon, who tried to have us all imagine a better world. Martin Luther King, Jr, whose birthday we will celebrate in just two weeks...he had a dream that apparently has run dry, if the news be believed. What we need to remember is that those who wish vengeance on others will eventually receive what they have dished out....remember Luke 6:37-38: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure-- pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

As we turn the page on our calendars, let us also turn the page of our hearts. Let us go and love one another....instruct one another in the way of God. It will go well for you. I promise.