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New Year's Day 2015
about... Mercies That Are New; An Allegory
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I just finished reading a thoughtful New Year Day's reflection from a year ago and felt it should be shared again, this year. Yes, it's a bit lengthy and maybe even sluggish in some spots (but you're certainly used to 'sluggish' if you read this website with any regularity). Nevertheless, the content's well worth any time you spend to contemplate. So... 'take and make' the time, grab a cup of coffee, listen to the video to prepare your heart and dream with me a bit during this New Year's season...
The mercies of the Lord are new every morning!
What does it mean for us that God’s new morning mercies await us in 2015? It means that regardless of the ups and downs we may have experienced in 2014, we can look into this coming year with hope, the hope that comes with a fresh start, the hope that’s grounded in the fact that God Himself is our portion.
Think about that for a moment. God has new mercies for you today, and tomorrow, and throughout the coming year. He holds before you a 'one-day-at-a-time future' that’s filled with hope. And not just some vague, ethereal hope. But a hope that’s worked out in all the real aspects of real life. A hope that’s written on a clean slate. A hope that flows from the essence, the heart, the character, of God Himself. With the dawning of a new year we have only to open our eyes, behold the gift, unwrap it, and start enjoying the sweetness and power of God’s mercy. Even with all the messiness and unpredictability that surely lies ahead, God’s new morning mercies can bring you the best year of your life... one day at a time!
Here’s how it works. Imagine, if you will, your home, early on January 1 (as early as you can imagine getting up after New Year’s Eve!). You’re still in your jammies. You walk to the kitchen to get your morning coffee, and there you find a giant package, wrapped in the colors of heaven, glowing with a warm radiance. Wondering how you could have overlooked such a large and striking Christmas present for the past seven days, you quickly begin to unwrap it. Opening the box, you start taking out the contents, one item at a time. There are no neckties, there’s no shaving lotion, no cheap perfume, no Chinese-made hand tools, no too-small-to-read plastic framed Bible verses or wrong-sized clothes or cheap exercise equipment or bargain table books . . . or anything that you suspect was someone else’s Christmas present a year ago. As you survey the contents, you feel not a shred of disappointment. Far from it! As your eyes move from present to present, your heart begins to dance with excitement and anticipation. Everything is beautiful! It’s all top quality, and it’s all brand new! And . . . it’s just exactly what you wanted!
With trembling hands you reach in and begin to take out your gifts, one at a time. First you pull out a new mercy for your relationships with friends and family, including the members of your church family. O, how wonderful! Hope fills your heart as you see before your eyes visions of deeper, more intimate, more satisfying relationships with those you love. In your vision you see the supernatural flow of things like forgiveness and empathy and encouragement and childlike fun. You feel the warmth of kindred spirit heart-to-heart connectedness. You sense the excitement of standing back-to-back and side-to-side with trusted comrades in the Great Battle. You experience relief at the knowledge that you are not alone. Wow! With this new morning mercy for relationships... what a year this could be!
Next, you find a new mercy for your work, whether employment or school or the care of a home. As you hold this gift, you feel a new energy for the labor of your hands and heart. You see the goal of your labor more clearly and begin to see yourself as able and victorious. Drudgery begins to crumble away, as does mediocrity. They’re replaced by satisfaction... and honor... and the whispered sound of the words, “Well done!” Wow! With this new morning mercy for my work... what a year this could be!
You then pull out a new mercy for the holy stewardship of your physical body. Visions of past failure melt away as God takes off your shoulders the weight of discouragement you’ve felt over your lack of self-discipline. The multitude of excuses for poor eating habits and lack of consistent physical activity are exposed for the deceivers that they truly are, but God’s tender mercy replaces condemnation with a gentle determination that’s rooted in His power living in you. As you view your body through God’s eyes you’re reminded that it was formed and fashioned by His creative hand, beautiful in His eyes, and deserving of the kind of personal care that communicates gratitude to Him. You see that your physical self is not just some unimportant appendage to be abused until its untimely retirement. You see it instead as holy, set apart with the rest of you for God’s purposes. And you understand with newfound revelation that to neglect the care of your body is to neglect, to some degree, those God-ordained purposes. So with a firm conviction that’s grounded in balance and wisdom, you set out to honor God with your body, resisting the knee-jerk reaction to seek microwave results through fad diets or unrealistic workout plans. Instead, with the encouragement of God’s mercies and the accountability of a friend or two, you commit yourself to realistic, daily, measurable goals concerning nutrition and physical activity. Wow! With this new morning mercy for my physical condition... what a year this could be!
Then, you lay hold of a new mercy for rest... real rest... deep rest... rest for the body and the mind and the heart and the soul. This, you realize, is that ancient gift, that rest from labor, which God wisely and lovingly made for His image-bearers so that we could recuperate from the toil of life and get rejuvenated for the road ahead. You also become aware that this need for rest is a foreshadowing of the gospel, and it is a not-so-subtle reminder that we are not omnipotent! As you hold this precious and humbling gift in your hands you feel stress and exhaustion begin to fade, as if siphoned from the bloodstream of your soul. You see with newfound clarity, as one freshly awakened, how you’ve quenched your inner fire with buckets of busyness and anxious activity and the constant noise of television and radio (not to mention the inner noise of the ever-present Internet). Suddenly you breathe deeply, as if you’ve just burst forth from the surface of the water. You’re breathing in rest... and you just can’t get enough! You start to feel yourself slowing down. Your mind is quieted, your heart stilled. First, nothing but peace. Then a growing awareness. You begin to see things you’ve been missing, hear things that have escaped you, feel things you’ve been numb to, smell fragrances that were previously too delicate, too subtle to perceive. Now you are in the Sabbathland, a place of rest where your weary soul and tired body can find recuperation and refreshment. Wow! With this new morning mercy for regular Sabbath rest (daily and weekly and seasonal Sabbath rest)... what a year this could be!
Next, you reach in and, feeling something that’s hot to the touch, you lay hold of a small canister that is labeled “Purifying Fire.” Picking it up you see that it’s filled with new mercy for all those areas of sin that you’ve struggled with for so long. On the label it says that it works on gossip and lying. It says it’s strong enough for impatience, unkindness, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and anger. It’ll handle lust and envy and greed and lack of self-control. It’s perfect for cleansing away cowardice, even in all it’s most subtle forms. And it’s especially effective on the stains of selfishness and pride along with judgmentalism and a critical spirit. The directions say that if you’ll simply confess your sins with sincerity, with godly sorrow, and with faith, God will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. These directions call you to throw off every unneeded thing that’s weighing you down and hindering your spiritual race, and to throw off that particular sin that tends to so easily trip you up. The directions also assure you that there’s now no condemnation for those who are in Christ; that as a Christian you’re a new creation with a good, new heart; that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world; that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ; that walking by the Holy Spirit will save you from countless stumbles into the miry pit of sin; and that God has given you absolutely everything you need for life and godliness. Setting down this hot canister of purifying fire, you realize that as you’ve held it, it’s burned both your hands and your heart. But the burns are not the destructive kind. Indeed they’ve brought healing to wounds that you’ve carried for a long, long time. And they’ve left you with clean hands and a pure heart.
Gift after gift after gift, you take to yourself the sweet and strong new morning mercies of a God who understands your struggles and your weaknesses, and who also understands His calling on your life and His power in your life. And with every gift, you feel the power of a life-giving hope flowing from the fountainhead of God’s own heart. And you realize that all the gifts are actually stewardships. And you strongly suspect that in the coming year you will grow as never before in many areas of Christian ministry. You see visions of yourself counseling the hurting and discouraged, sharing the gospel with unbelievers, and teaching and exhorting and encouraging the believers.
Finally, gazing upon the last gift in the box, you see that it is more beautiful than all the rest. It shines with a holy brilliance that fills your heart at once with excitement and fear, like the slow ascent of a great roller-coaster as it takes you up to the brink of an exhilarating ride. Under the beckoning power of its radiant brightness, and in spite of its extraordinary weight, you reach in, pick it up, and hold it tight to your heart. And you feel as if you’ll die if you can’t hold it tighter. This final gift is God’s new morning mercy for your personal, intimate fellowship with Him. You know that, in the past year, you didn’t walk as closely with Him as your heart desired. You know that too often His Book wasn’t opened, His counsel not sought, His advances ignored. It’s far too easy to count the number of times you stood with Him on the dance floor or sang with Him in the rain. It’s much more difficult to count all the times when you didn’t, when your busy life and distracted heart blinded you to the look in His eyes and deafened you to the sound of His voice. But here in your hands is this shining new mercy just calling your name, calling you to come home to His heart, to walk with Him in the higher heights, to linger with Him in quiet places, and to march at His side in realms of battle. Here, held tight to your chest is glory and life, gentle forgiveness, the smile of heaven, the greatest adventure, the ultimate hope.
And the Giver of this and all the other gifts says, “It’s all for you... just because I love you. Cast aside discouragement and resignation, and take up the great and sure hope of My new morning mercies. In My book who you are is not defined by your past. In fact who you are is not defined by your own deeds at all, good or bad. You’re defined by who you are in Me — by what I’ve done for you... through My cross and My resurrection and My ascension. And your life, your time of stewardship here on Earth... well, it isn’t defined by your past either. Rather, your lifetime here will be defined by what you choose to do with today’s mercy, today’s enabling grace. Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of My upward call. I’ve given you everything necessary for life and godliness. And so the possibilities for your life are more vast and more glorious than you can now imagine. But trust Me, and walk with Me, and I’ll most definitely make all things new. And O what a year this can be for you, my precious, precious child!”"
What does it mean for us that God’s new morning mercies await us in 2015? It means that regardless of the ups and downs we may have experienced in 2014, we can look into this coming year with hope, the hope that comes with a fresh start, the hope that’s grounded in the fact that God Himself is our portion.
Think about that for a moment. God has new mercies for you today, and tomorrow, and throughout the coming year. He holds before you a 'one-day-at-a-time future' that’s filled with hope. And not just some vague, ethereal hope. But a hope that’s worked out in all the real aspects of real life. A hope that’s written on a clean slate. A hope that flows from the essence, the heart, the character, of God Himself. With the dawning of a new year we have only to open our eyes, behold the gift, unwrap it, and start enjoying the sweetness and power of God’s mercy. Even with all the messiness and unpredictability that surely lies ahead, God’s new morning mercies can bring you the best year of your life... one day at a time!
Here’s how it works. Imagine, if you will, your home, early on January 1 (as early as you can imagine getting up after New Year’s Eve!). You’re still in your jammies. You walk to the kitchen to get your morning coffee, and there you find a giant package, wrapped in the colors of heaven, glowing with a warm radiance. Wondering how you could have overlooked such a large and striking Christmas present for the past seven days, you quickly begin to unwrap it. Opening the box, you start taking out the contents, one item at a time. There are no neckties, there’s no shaving lotion, no cheap perfume, no Chinese-made hand tools, no too-small-to-read plastic framed Bible verses or wrong-sized clothes or cheap exercise equipment or bargain table books . . . or anything that you suspect was someone else’s Christmas present a year ago. As you survey the contents, you feel not a shred of disappointment. Far from it! As your eyes move from present to present, your heart begins to dance with excitement and anticipation. Everything is beautiful! It’s all top quality, and it’s all brand new! And . . . it’s just exactly what you wanted!
With trembling hands you reach in and begin to take out your gifts, one at a time. First you pull out a new mercy for your relationships with friends and family, including the members of your church family. O, how wonderful! Hope fills your heart as you see before your eyes visions of deeper, more intimate, more satisfying relationships with those you love. In your vision you see the supernatural flow of things like forgiveness and empathy and encouragement and childlike fun. You feel the warmth of kindred spirit heart-to-heart connectedness. You sense the excitement of standing back-to-back and side-to-side with trusted comrades in the Great Battle. You experience relief at the knowledge that you are not alone. Wow! With this new morning mercy for relationships... what a year this could be!
Next, you find a new mercy for your work, whether employment or school or the care of a home. As you hold this gift, you feel a new energy for the labor of your hands and heart. You see the goal of your labor more clearly and begin to see yourself as able and victorious. Drudgery begins to crumble away, as does mediocrity. They’re replaced by satisfaction... and honor... and the whispered sound of the words, “Well done!” Wow! With this new morning mercy for my work... what a year this could be!
You then pull out a new mercy for the holy stewardship of your physical body. Visions of past failure melt away as God takes off your shoulders the weight of discouragement you’ve felt over your lack of self-discipline. The multitude of excuses for poor eating habits and lack of consistent physical activity are exposed for the deceivers that they truly are, but God’s tender mercy replaces condemnation with a gentle determination that’s rooted in His power living in you. As you view your body through God’s eyes you’re reminded that it was formed and fashioned by His creative hand, beautiful in His eyes, and deserving of the kind of personal care that communicates gratitude to Him. You see that your physical self is not just some unimportant appendage to be abused until its untimely retirement. You see it instead as holy, set apart with the rest of you for God’s purposes. And you understand with newfound revelation that to neglect the care of your body is to neglect, to some degree, those God-ordained purposes. So with a firm conviction that’s grounded in balance and wisdom, you set out to honor God with your body, resisting the knee-jerk reaction to seek microwave results through fad diets or unrealistic workout plans. Instead, with the encouragement of God’s mercies and the accountability of a friend or two, you commit yourself to realistic, daily, measurable goals concerning nutrition and physical activity. Wow! With this new morning mercy for my physical condition... what a year this could be!
Then, you lay hold of a new mercy for rest... real rest... deep rest... rest for the body and the mind and the heart and the soul. This, you realize, is that ancient gift, that rest from labor, which God wisely and lovingly made for His image-bearers so that we could recuperate from the toil of life and get rejuvenated for the road ahead. You also become aware that this need for rest is a foreshadowing of the gospel, and it is a not-so-subtle reminder that we are not omnipotent! As you hold this precious and humbling gift in your hands you feel stress and exhaustion begin to fade, as if siphoned from the bloodstream of your soul. You see with newfound clarity, as one freshly awakened, how you’ve quenched your inner fire with buckets of busyness and anxious activity and the constant noise of television and radio (not to mention the inner noise of the ever-present Internet). Suddenly you breathe deeply, as if you’ve just burst forth from the surface of the water. You’re breathing in rest... and you just can’t get enough! You start to feel yourself slowing down. Your mind is quieted, your heart stilled. First, nothing but peace. Then a growing awareness. You begin to see things you’ve been missing, hear things that have escaped you, feel things you’ve been numb to, smell fragrances that were previously too delicate, too subtle to perceive. Now you are in the Sabbathland, a place of rest where your weary soul and tired body can find recuperation and refreshment. Wow! With this new morning mercy for regular Sabbath rest (daily and weekly and seasonal Sabbath rest)... what a year this could be!
Next, you reach in and, feeling something that’s hot to the touch, you lay hold of a small canister that is labeled “Purifying Fire.” Picking it up you see that it’s filled with new mercy for all those areas of sin that you’ve struggled with for so long. On the label it says that it works on gossip and lying. It says it’s strong enough for impatience, unkindness, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and anger. It’ll handle lust and envy and greed and lack of self-control. It’s perfect for cleansing away cowardice, even in all it’s most subtle forms. And it’s especially effective on the stains of selfishness and pride along with judgmentalism and a critical spirit. The directions say that if you’ll simply confess your sins with sincerity, with godly sorrow, and with faith, God will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. These directions call you to throw off every unneeded thing that’s weighing you down and hindering your spiritual race, and to throw off that particular sin that tends to so easily trip you up. The directions also assure you that there’s now no condemnation for those who are in Christ; that as a Christian you’re a new creation with a good, new heart; that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world; that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ; that walking by the Holy Spirit will save you from countless stumbles into the miry pit of sin; and that God has given you absolutely everything you need for life and godliness. Setting down this hot canister of purifying fire, you realize that as you’ve held it, it’s burned both your hands and your heart. But the burns are not the destructive kind. Indeed they’ve brought healing to wounds that you’ve carried for a long, long time. And they’ve left you with clean hands and a pure heart.
Gift after gift after gift, you take to yourself the sweet and strong new morning mercies of a God who understands your struggles and your weaknesses, and who also understands His calling on your life and His power in your life. And with every gift, you feel the power of a life-giving hope flowing from the fountainhead of God’s own heart. And you realize that all the gifts are actually stewardships. And you strongly suspect that in the coming year you will grow as never before in many areas of Christian ministry. You see visions of yourself counseling the hurting and discouraged, sharing the gospel with unbelievers, and teaching and exhorting and encouraging the believers.
Finally, gazing upon the last gift in the box, you see that it is more beautiful than all the rest. It shines with a holy brilliance that fills your heart at once with excitement and fear, like the slow ascent of a great roller-coaster as it takes you up to the brink of an exhilarating ride. Under the beckoning power of its radiant brightness, and in spite of its extraordinary weight, you reach in, pick it up, and hold it tight to your heart. And you feel as if you’ll die if you can’t hold it tighter. This final gift is God’s new morning mercy for your personal, intimate fellowship with Him. You know that, in the past year, you didn’t walk as closely with Him as your heart desired. You know that too often His Book wasn’t opened, His counsel not sought, His advances ignored. It’s far too easy to count the number of times you stood with Him on the dance floor or sang with Him in the rain. It’s much more difficult to count all the times when you didn’t, when your busy life and distracted heart blinded you to the look in His eyes and deafened you to the sound of His voice. But here in your hands is this shining new mercy just calling your name, calling you to come home to His heart, to walk with Him in the higher heights, to linger with Him in quiet places, and to march at His side in realms of battle. Here, held tight to your chest is glory and life, gentle forgiveness, the smile of heaven, the greatest adventure, the ultimate hope.
And the Giver of this and all the other gifts says, “It’s all for you... just because I love you. Cast aside discouragement and resignation, and take up the great and sure hope of My new morning mercies. In My book who you are is not defined by your past. In fact who you are is not defined by your own deeds at all, good or bad. You’re defined by who you are in Me — by what I’ve done for you... through My cross and My resurrection and My ascension. And your life, your time of stewardship here on Earth... well, it isn’t defined by your past either. Rather, your lifetime here will be defined by what you choose to do with today’s mercy, today’s enabling grace. Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of My upward call. I’ve given you everything necessary for life and godliness. And so the possibilities for your life are more vast and more glorious than you can now imagine. But trust Me, and walk with Me, and I’ll most definitely make all things new. And O what a year this can be for you, my precious, precious child!”"
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