I know it’s incredibly predictable and prosaic to use the turn of the calendar year as a reflective tool, but apparently I am exactly the type of person to use this mirror. I cannot say what impulse from which others might suffer, but I’ve discovered there are a few different causes for my philosophizing. And since I have this weblog, what better way to impose my thoughts on you, Unwitting Reader?
Item One: Desire for a fresh start. By my usual standards, the past twelve months have been awful. I should insert a caveat here, actually. In no way do I belittle what difficulties many, perhaps you, have suffered in that span of time. Compared with many I know, I am still well-situated in most areas of my life. Even so, if I could have a do-over I’m sure that the bulk of last year could have been more agreeably spent. I’ve had a good deal of stress on all fronts and no real place of relief. I should also state that I have had moments of good to temper the wealth of bad, without which it might have been easy to choose to abandon my present life for something else. Of course, hindsight tells me that would have been foolhardy, so I’m glad I never did that. All that to say, I am ready for a lot of things to be different, and entering 2009 affords me some opportunity.
Item Two: Ten year high school reunion. Shockingly, May 31st will mark ten completed years since high school. ENTER, COMPULSORY CELEBRATION. For the record, I don’t want to go. Some people seem to think I should go, and others say it’s better to wait until the twenty year reunion. The reasons others give for waiting are that ten years isn’t enough to separate us from the trappings of our high school years, and so the cliques which existed at graduation will still dominate the atmosphere; apparently at twenty years this will have changed. That is one reason I am reticent to go, but also–and this is the simple truth–I just don’t want to go. I’ll admit that I’m anxious to reconnect with two handfuls of people I’ve lost along the way but I believe I could find them some other way, too. This has been the happy truth of my present friendships with high school peers, anyway. There is only one person with whom I’ve had fairly regular contact, but even she and I had our communication blackouts. As the reunion nears, perhaps I’ll change my tune, but it’s been the melody I’ve sung for about three years now. I’m not hopeful.
Item three: Sunday’s sermon from Jan. 4th. [Context: The current sermon series is from the New Testament book of Galatians and is about how to do more than simply survive life, but to overcome the things plaguing us.] That particular sermon, based primarily on Galatians 4:21-5:1, addressed the question Paul has for his contemporary readers, namely: if you have been given a way out of the things which trapped you in your life before you knew God, why would you look for something else to trap you after God freed you? Not to oversimplify, but the most common answer is that we are prone to return to what is familiar. Better the evil you know than the evil you don’t know, right? But the real truth of the Good News is that when God frees us (“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1), it isn’t so we swap one bad thing for another. It’s so we swap out the bad for something good. As I reflect on the past year, it seems to me that I’ve chosen to be trapped (at times by myself and at times by others) because it was a comfortable trap, but I’m ready to be let out. Anyway, I know this summary does not do justice to the sermon, and I can’t point you to the podcast of that sermon because it isn’t on the church’s website yet. If you are interested in hearing it for yourself, however, let me know and I’ll get you information about it when it’s on the website. I’m finding that I’ve been in need of this sermon series, and I have no qualms about recommending it to others, whether they’ve had a tough time lately or not. I’m looking forward to a year with more freedom, that’s for sure.
I don’t have a way to neatly wrap this post up. I guess I just want to say that 2009 is already looking far better than 2008.
