*****************
A boy asked his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hangs over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"
The dad replied, "Two."
"No," the son replied. “Here is the question again: There are three frogs and one decided to jump, how many are left?"
The dad said, "Oh, I get the point! If one decided to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."
The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."
Does that sound like our last year’s resolutions? Great inspiration and great resolutions, but oftentimes we only decide, and months later we are still on the same limb of doing nothing.
***********
Introduction
Welcome to a new year! Thank God we have lived to see it! I have the privilege of accompanying you, if you wish, every day of this new year as we read the gospel passages together, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Like us, those disciples had no idea what lay in store for them. Their minds were fixed on a disastrous past and a bleak future. But Jesus was walking beside them, talking with them, drawing out their fears: he was nearer than they could ever have imagined. “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road?” (Luke 24:32). We know only one thing about the future: the Jesus will walk with us, no matter what happens.
1. Fr
John Speekman
The name "January" comes from the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future. This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the new year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? What things did I achieve last year and what did I fail to achieve? How can I consolidate the achievements of last year while reversing the failures and losses in this new year? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the new year.
"Leisure," from the Latin, means "to be free." Leisure is anything that restores you to peace while you are doing it. So, gardening, golf, reading, puzzles, and many other things can restore us to peace as we do them. Another cousin of leisure is the word "paragon." This little-used word means "the second thing that we do in life that keeps the first thing in tune." Hence, our work may draw energy from us, and we have then a "paragon," a leisure thing we do in order to restore us.
Maybe he's onto something. Why torture ourselves when we never keep those resolutions more than a week anyway?
What we need, of course, is not another resolution, but a revolution. We need a turning point in our lives. Like the wise men of old we need to catch a glimpse of a guiding light, and we need to follow that light to a New Life in Christ.
The first is WAKE UP--Begin the day with the Lord. It is His day. Rejoice in it.
The second is DRESS-UP--Put on a smile. It improves your looks. It says something about your attitude.
The third is SHUT-UP--Watch your tongue. Don't gossip. Say nice things. Learn to listen.
The fourth is STAND-UP--Take a stand for what you believe. Resist evil. Do good.
Five, LOOK-UP--Open your eyes to the Lord. After all, He is your only Savior.
Six, REACH-UP--Spend time in prayer with your adorations, confessions, thanksgivings and supplications to the Lord.
And finally, LIFT-UP--Be available to help those in need--serving, supporting, and sharing.
If you're going to make New Year's resolutions this year, let me suggest Rev. Schoedel's list.
Why do we bother to make New Year's resolutions in the first place? Why do we feel this need each January 1 to set new goals? Maybe it is because resolutions help us to identify our priorities. They answer the Question: how do I want to invest my time, energy, money, and talents in this New Year? The New Year reminds us that time is passing. It is up to each of us to maximize the potential of every moment.
_________________________
Since
we celebrate the Feast of Mary the Mother of God on New Year's Day, may I take
this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and Peaceful New Year. I pray that the
Lord Jesus and his mother Mary may enrich your lives during the New Year with
an abundance of God's blessings. Today's Feast of "Mary, Mother of
God" is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. This celebration
reminds us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is also our
Heavenly Mother. Hence our ideal motto for the New Year 2008 should be
"Through Mary to Jesus!"
Today's
feast answers the question of why Catholics honour Mary. Non- Christians
sometimes believe that we Catholics worship Mary as a goddess who gave birth to
our God. Non Catholic Christians argue that there is no Biblical basis for honouring
Mary, and that Catholics worship her and make her equal to God. They fail to
understand why we honour Mary by naming churches and institutions after her.
They do not understand what we mean by calling her the Mother of God. The truth
is that we Catholics do not worship Mary as we worship, adore God. We honour
her, respect her, love her and seek her intercession praying, "Holy Mary,
mother of God, pray for us sinners." We do not, ever, equate her with God
nor replace God with her. Rather, we honour her primarily because God honoured
her by choosing her to become the mother of Jesus, the Second Person of the
Holy Trinity, when He took on our flesh and became Man.
Exegesis
We
learn the great truth that Mary is the Mother of God from St. Luke's gospel, in
the message given by the angel to Mary: "You are going to be the mother of a Son and you
will call Him Jesus, and He will be called the Son of the Most High." When
the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Elizabeth , after
the angel had appeared to her and told her that she would be the mother of
Jesus, Elizabeth St Paul
The
doctrine of the Church:
Based on these references in the New Testament and on the traditional belief of
the early Church, the Council of Ephesus affirmed in AD 431 that Mary was truly
the Mother of God because "according to the flesh" she gave birth to
Jesus, who was truly God from the first moment of His conception by Mary.
Twenty years later, in AD 451, the Council of Chalcedon affirmed the Motherhood
of Mary as a dogma, an official doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. Since
Jesus is God and Mary is his mother, she is the Mother of God, Mother of the
Messiah and the Mother of Christ our Divine Saviour. We also learn from the
Holy Scriptures and Tradition that God filled the mother of His only Son with
all celestial graces, freed her at the moment of her conception from original
sin, allowed her to play an active role in the redemptive work of Jesus, and
finally took her to heaven, body and soul, after her death. As He was dying on
the cross, Jesus gave us the precious gift of His own mother to be our heavenly
Mother.
Life messages
1)
Let us strive to be pure and holy like our heavenly Mother. All mothers want their
children to inherit or acquire their good qualities. Our heavenly Mother is no
exception. She succeeded in training the Child Jesus, so that He grew in
holiness and in "favour before God and man." Hence our best way of
celebrating this feast and honouring our heavenly Mother would be to promise
her that we will practice her virtues of faith, obedience, purity and humble
service. In this way, we will be trying to become the saintly sons and
daughters of our heavenly Mother, the holy Mother of God.
2)
Three ways to make the New Year meaningful: a) Something to dream, b) Something to do, and
c) Someone to love. "I have a dream'" said Martin Luther King. We
should all have a noble plan of action (dream a noble dream) for every day in
the New Year. We need to remember the proverb:" Cherish your yesterdays,
dream your tomorrows, but live your today." It has been truly said that an
idle mind is the devil's workshop. We must not be barren fig trees in God's
vineyard. We must be always engaged, doing good to others and loving our fellow
men and women, who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. This becomes easy
when we make God the center of our life and realize His presence in all the
people around us. Let us light a candle instead of blaming the darkness around
us. Just as the moon borrows the sun's light to illuminate the earth, we must
radiate the light of God shining within us.
3) A
resolution for the New Year: We
might resolve to start every morning with a short prayer: "Good morning, Lord.
Thank You for extending my life for one more day. Please grant me a special
anointing of your Holy Spirit so that I may do your holy will today and avoid
everything evil." We might also resolve to say a short prayer, every
evening, the last thing we do before we go to sleep: "Thank you Lord for
helping me to do your will today. Forgive me, Lord, for saying 'no' to your
grace several times today. I am really sorry for all my sins of the day. Please
pardon me. And, as we close our eyes, we might say: "Good night, Lord.
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
Have a Happy New Year, overflowing with a
"Yes" to God our Father, to the Lord Jesus our Savior and to the Holy
Spirit our Advocate and our Guide to every good deed. (Fr. Tony Kadavil)
Welcome to a new year! Thank God we have lived to see it! I have the privilege of accompanying you, if you wish, every day of this new year as we read the gospel passages together, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Like us, those disciples had no idea what lay in store for them. Their minds were fixed on a disastrous past and a bleak future. But Jesus was walking beside them, talking with them, drawing out their fears: he was nearer than they could ever have imagined. “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road?” (Luke 24:32). We know only one thing about the future: the Jesus will walk with us, no matter what happens.
Mary
too will walk with us. It is appropriate to have a mother to accompany our
first steps. January 1st is always her feast. Her title, ‘Mother of God,
affirms equally the humanity and the divinity of Jesus.
The
Nestorians – followers of Nestorius, the 5th-century archbishop of Constantinople – said that Christ was two persons: the
man Jesus and the divine Son of God. This view was condemned at the Council of
Ephesus (431 AD), which insisted that he was one person with two natures,
divine and human. The most emphatic way they could say this was to affirm that
Mary was not just the mother of the man Jesus, but that she was the mother of
God. This was to say that Christ was one person, not two. The word used was
‘Theotokos’ (Greek for ‘God-bearer’). The Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.)
continued the use of this term, and it has become orthodox Christian teaching.
Note that it is more a statement about Christ than about Mary – or rather,
equally so. Icons of the ‘Theotokos’ are common now in the West.
In
a sense, when a child is born a mother is born. When a child is born, its
mother begins to be a mother. Even if she was already mother to other children
this new child makes her a new mother; a new chapter in her mothering begins.
In the birth of the Son of God, Mary begins to be the Mother of God. When a
Child is born, a Mother is born.
Numbers 6:22-27;
Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21
One of the things I
love about the Catholic Church is her courage when it comes to speaking of
Mary. Protestantism is timid in speaking of her but Catholicism never baulks.
The Church will confidently give to Mary all her titles and will speak of all
her prerogatives as she deserves.
I'll never forget the
raised eyebrows of a pastor friend of mine when he read in one of the books on
my shelf that Mary was 'the mother of our salvation'. Well, Jesus is our
salvation and she is his mother, so she deserves to be called: Mother of our
Salvation!
Every serious-minded
Catholic has a love for Mary. We readily speak of her as the Mother of God, the
mother of Jesus, and our mother too.
Firstly, we know that
she is the Mother of Jesus. We have just finished celebrating Christmas which
is not only the feast of the birth of our Saviour but also of his birth from
Mary.
Secondly, we know that
she became our Mother at the foot of the Cross when seeing her and John
standing at the foot of the Cross Jesus said to her: Woman, this is your
son.
The Church has always
believed that, at that moment, Jesus confided all humanity into the care of his
Mother.
Protestant Christians
maintain the we Catholics are misreading Sacred Scripture when we claim Jesus
gave us all to Mary. They say he was just making sure she was going to be
looked after.
Well, there are two
things about this:
- Why, then, did he give John to Mary first? He said Woman, this is your son - only then did he say: This is your mother.
- And then, why would he want to make sure
she would be looked after if, as Protestants say, she had all these other
children, the 'brothers and sisters' of Jesus?
To put it simply - Mary
is the Mother of God because Jesus is God and she is his mother.
Mary did not just give
birth to the human nature of Jesus but to the entire Jesus. Mother’s don’t give
birth to 'bits' of their children but to the whole person of their child – body
and soul.
Mary is not the
‘author’ or ‘creator’ of Jesus’ divinity, but she is the mother of a child who
was human and divine in one single person.
So Mary can rightfully
be called Mother of God and so she was, from earliest Christian times.
It is a title given to her by God’s generosity towards her and towards the
human race to which she belongs.
2.
Rev David Rider
Purpose: The desire for peace is the
strongest desire of every human heart, a desire which coincides with the desire
for a full, happy, satisfied human life.
If you ever have the chance to visit the
Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians in the northern Italian city of Turin,
toward the back of the church you will find a painting depicting a famous dream
of the basilica’s builder, St. John Bosco. At the center of the painting is a great
flagship in the midst of a ferocious battle at sea. The ship is surrounded by a large enemy fleet
bombarding it with cannon balls and incendiary bombs, and ramming their sharp
prows into its side. A man dressed in
white stands at the tip of the ship’s bow attempting to guide it safely to the
shore. Separated by a distance equal to
the width of the ship are two tall pillars through which the ship must pass to
arrive at the shore. On the top of one
of the pillars is an image of Mary with the words “Help of Christians” written
below; on the top of the other is a large white communion host, with the words,
“Salvation of the Faithful” beneath it.
Each time an enemy ship succeeds in creating a gash in the side of the flagship
a breeze arriving from the pillars patches up the hole. At one point, according to the text of the
dream, the captain in white falls down wounded and dies, and the men in the
enemy ships cheer and rejoice. Almost
right away, however, the other men on the flagship elect a new captain, also
dressed in white, who rises up immediately to continue to guide the ship to
safety. The battle continues to rage
fiercely, but the new captain succeeds in steering the ship between the two
pillars, bringing it into port. As soon
as it is anchored to the two columns all of the enemy ships that had fought
against it flee away, colliding against each other and breaking to pieces. Suddenly, the waters are still and a great
calm reigns over the sea.
Contained within this painting are images
similar to those which the Church proposes today for our contemplation as we
celebrate the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, which coincides with the World
Day of Peace, and comes at the conclusion of the octave of Christmas. St. John Bosco, a man gifted with many
prophetic dreams during his life, saw the scene depicted in this painting one
night in May of 1862. He understood the
flagship as an image of the Church, the captain in white as a symbol of the
Holy Father, and the enemy ships as representative of enemies of the Church
subjecting her to persecution. The two
pillars and the images resting on them represent the protection and help that
Jesus and Mary provide the pilgrim Church on earth. While maintaining the primacy of this
interpretation, one could also make many comparisons between these images and
the individual Christian’s experience of moving forward on his pilgrimage to
eternity.
As is the custom in our culture, many of us
today are probably setting forth resolutions for the new year which we hope
will facilitate our arrival at some goals we have established for
ourselves. If our ultimate goal is
better health, maybe we have resolved to go to the gym more often or to quit smoking. If our goal is improved relationships,
perhaps we have resolved to call or visit family and friends more frequently,
and to spend less time at the office.
While there may not seem to be much more to these goals than what meets
the eye, what ultimately motivates each of them is really a deeper desire for
peace. The desire for peace is the
strongest desire of every human heart, a desire which coincides with the desire
for a full, happy, satisfied human life.
It is this promise of peace, announced by the angels, which drives the
shepherds of today’s Gospel to Bethlehem, and it is this peace which the
priests of the Israelites wished on their people as they blessed them with the
prayer that we heard in the first reading, “The LORD look upon you kindly and
give you peace!” On this World Day of
Peace, as we take a critical look at our lives, and seek to establish our
agenda for the upcoming year, let us acknowledge our fundamental desire to
experience within the stillness of the waters and calm of the sea with which
the prophetic dream of St. John Bosco comes to its conclusion. The desire for peace should be the starting
point for any resolutions we make today.
As believers, we have the great privilege
of knowing where this peace that we are all looking for is to be found. True peace is to be found in Jesus. True peace is to be found in accepting into
our hearts – with all of the implications of that act of welcome – the baby
whose birth we celebrated just over a week ago.
In the Bible, we hear St. Paul say of Jesus, “He is our peace” (Eph
2:14). Elsewhere he prays, “Let the
peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Col 3:15). In one of the more quoted lines from his
pontificate, the soon to be canonized Pope John XXIII powerfully distinguished
between those who accept Jesus into their hearts and have peace, and those who
reject him and remain without it.
Speaking at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he said, “The
great problem confronting the world after almost 2,000 years remains unchanged. Christ is … resplendent as the center of
history and of life. Men are either with
Him … and then they enjoy light, goodness, order, and peace. Or else they are without Him … and then they
give rise to confusion, to bitterness in human relations, and to the constant
danger of … wars.” 1 At the beginning of
this new year, what better resolution to make than a resolution to deepen our
relationship with Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in order to come closer to
attaining that peace for which each of our hearts yearns?
Speaking of Jesus in today’s second
reading, St. Paul also makes a reference to Mary when he says that the Son of
God came in the fullness of time, “born of a woman.” Today, we celebrate Mary as theotokos,
meaning “God-bearer,” one of the most ancient titles under which she has been
honored throughout the centuries.
Celebrating Mary’s maternity of the Son of God calls to mind her other
maternal roles as mother of the Church, and spiritual mother of all
humanity. As spiritual mother of all of
humanity, Mary is our mother, and it is she who leads us to her Divine Son,
constantly pointing the way to him. As
our Holy Father Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI, said a few years ago when
preaching on this solemnity, “Mary continually offers her mediation to the
People of God, on pilgrimage through history towards eternity, just as she once
offered it to the shepherds of Bethlehem.
She, who gave earthly life to the Son of God, continues to give human
beings divine life, which is Jesus himself and his Holy Spirit.” 2 At the beginning of this year, we are invited
to attend Mary’s school, to learn from her how to be faithful disciples of her
Son and to open our hearts to the peace that he wants to give us.
In the dream of St. John Bosco so vividly
depicted by that painting in the basilica of Turin, the ship under attack
arrives on land only after passing through two pillars bearing symbols of Jesus
and Mary. In our own Christian lives,
the “enemy ships” of temptation, fear, anxiety, and doubt constantly threaten
to prevent us from acquiring the peace for which we long. Ultimately, however, these enemy ships will
not prevail if we continue to steer our lives between Our Lady and Our
Lord. If, at the beginning of this year,
we resolve to allow her to bring us to him, we will arrive at still waters and peace
will reign over the sea of our hearts.
3.
From the Connections:
THE WORD:
In the Roman church,
today’s solemnity is the oldest feast of Mary in the Church, honoring her by
her first and primary title, “Mother of God.”
Jesus is given the
name Yeshua – “The Lord saves.” The rite of circumcision unites
Mary’s child with the chosen people and makes him an heir to the promises God
made to Abraham -- promises to be fulfilled in the Child himself.
HOMILY POINTS:
Today we honor Mary
under her most ancient title -- Theotokos, Bearer of God: In
accepting her role as mother of the Messiah, she becomes the first disciple of
her Son, the first to embrace his Gospel of hope, compassion and
reconciliation.
As Mary, the young
unmarried pregnant girl, believes and trusts in the incredible thing that she
is to be a part of, even the most ordinary of us can believe in our parts in
the drama, too.
The God who makes all
things new in Christ enables us to make this truly a new year for each one of
us -- a time for renewal and re-creation in the love of God, a time for making
this year a year of peace in our lives and homes, a time for making this new
year truly a “year of our Lord.”
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5. Fr. Munachi Ezheogu, csspThe name "January" comes from the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future. This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the new year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? What things did I achieve last year and what did I fail to achieve? How can I consolidate the achievements of last year while reversing the failures and losses in this new year? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the new year.
There are people who tell you that there is no point making new year resolutions. Do not believe them. We must set goals and make resolutions as a necessary conclusion to our review of the past year. And we do need to review our lives from year to year because, as Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living.
Today's newspapers are full of individual and collective new year resolutions. Most of those, however, are not resolutions at all but only wishes. What is the difference between a resolution and a wish? A wish identifies a goal one wants to reach, a resolution specifies the steps one will take to reach it. A wish says this is where I want to be, a resolution says this is the road I will take, this is what I will do to get there. The wishful person says "I want to pass my exams this year" and the resolved person says "I will devote an extra hour to my studies everyday in order to pass my exams." The wishful person says "I will have more peace and love in my family this year" and the resolved person says "I will spend more time with my family at table instead of rushing off to the TV, so that we get to know and understand ourselves better." The wishful person says "I will live a life of union with God this year" and the resolved person says "I will set aside this time everyday to pray and hear God's word." The difference between wishing and resolving is: are we prepared to do what it takes to make our dreams come true, are we prepared to pay the price?
The gospel today presents Mary to us as a model of that new life in Christ that all of us wish for ourselves in the new year. There we see that Mary was prepared to do something to realize this goal. What did she do? We read that the shepherds, when they went to adore the Child Jesus in the manger, told all that the angels had said to them. "But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). Again after the boy Jesus was found in the Temple, we are told that "His mother treasured all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51). Mary was a woman who valued the word of God, who treasured it and made time to meditate and ponder it. It is true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, but this should not make us forget that she needed to make an effort in order to cooperate with the grace of God. She pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God.
The two examples above of Mary pondering the word of God, namely, after the visit of the shepherds and after the finding in the temple, show that Mary found the word of God both in divine revelation (the angels' words to the shepherds) and in her own experiences (her encounter with her son in the temple). Similarly God speaks to us today through divine revelation (e.g. the Bible, the teaching and preaching of the Church) as well as through our personal experiences, if only we made time to reflect on them as Mary did.
Whatever the situation in which we find ourselves - a hardship, a disappointment, a decision to make - God has a solution, an answer that is right for us. We tell God about it in prayer but we also listen to what God has to tell us about it. Prayer is a conversation with God but sometimes all we do is pick up the phone, read out the list of our problems to God and drop the phone without listening to hear what God has to say to us. Let us today resolve to listen more to the voice of God, to treasure God's word and ponder it in our hearts. Then shall we be able to realize our new year resolution of a new life in union with God.
************
ILLUSTRATIONS:
1. Did you know that New Year's Day is the one holiday
that is almost universal? It is the world's most observed holiday.
I trust you've made your New Year's resolutions one of
which is to be in worship each week. Well done for this first Sunday. I won't
ask you if you've resolved to lose the weight you gained between Thanksgiving
and Christmas, or if you're planning on joining a health club, or if you're
going to run five miles a day. Five miles, by the way, is my total aggregate of
a lifetime of running.
The late Erma Bombeck made some memorable resolutions over the years:
1. I will go to no doctor
whose office plants have died.
2. I'm going to follow my husband's suggestion to put a little excitement into my life by living within our budget.
3. I'm going to apply for a hardship scholarship to Weight Watchers.
4. I will never loan my car to anyone I have given birth to.
2. I'm going to follow my husband's suggestion to put a little excitement into my life by living within our budget.
3. I'm going to apply for a hardship scholarship to Weight Watchers.
4. I will never loan my car to anyone I have given birth to.
2. Joke
writer Ed McManus has some words of comfort for those of us who are
setting resolutions: "Don't worry about [keeping] those 2013 News Year's
resolutions," he says. "You only have to deal with them until the end
of February and then you can give them up for Lent." It sounds like he has
been spying on some of us.
Resolutions are good, especially if there are changes
we need to make in our lives. I heard about one poor guy who dialled his
girlfriend and got the following recording: "I am not available right now,
but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life.
Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are
one of the changes."
It's good to make changes, for the most part. As we
are often reminded by our critics, our spouses or our children, none of us is
perfect. In fact, some of us might have some deep regrets about the way we've
lived our lives.
3. Dr. Les
Parrott tells about a guy in Fredericksburg, Virginia named
Cliff Satterthwaite who helps people get rid of their regrets. Each New Year's
Eve Mr. Satterthwaite sets up a booth there in Fredericksburg where those
celebrating New Year's Eve can come for a moment of sober reflection. Put the
emphasis on "sober" reflection. Those who come write their regrets on
a scrap of paper, then they set a match to them and turn them to ashes in an
adjacent canister. Literally, their regrets go up in smoke. At least, that's
the general idea.
We could do that. We could write our regrets on a
piece of paper and bring them to the altar and watch them go up in smoke. That
might be very therapeutic for some of us as we begin a new year. But our text
for the day from the prologue to the Gospel of John puts the emphasis not on
our past, but on our future. Not on our regrets, but on our possibilities....
4. Tom
Ervin, Professor of Music at the University of Arizona was
attending a conference for music teachers in New York. While at the conference
he purchased a talking metronome. A metronome is a device for counting the
beats in a song. Before Tom and his son boarded their flight home, Tom hefted
his carry-on bag onto the security-check conveyor belt.
The security guard's eyes widened as he watched the monitor. He asked Tom what he had in the bag. Then the guard slowly pulled out of the bag this strange looking device, a six-by-three-inch black box covered with dials and switches. Other travellers, sensing trouble, vacated the area.
The security guard's eyes widened as he watched the monitor. He asked Tom what he had in the bag. Then the guard slowly pulled out of the bag this strange looking device, a six-by-three-inch black box covered with dials and switches. Other travellers, sensing trouble, vacated the area.
"It's a metronome," Tom replied weakly, as
his son cringed in embarrassment. "It's a talking metronome," he
insisted. "Look, I'll show you." He took the box and flipped a
switch, realizing that he had no idea how it worked. "One . . . two . . .
three . . . four," said the metronome in perfect time. Everyone breathed a
sigh of relief.
As they gathered their belongings, Tom's son
whispered, "Aren't you glad it didn't go 'four . . . three . . . two . . .
one . . . '?" For the past few weeks we have been counting down the days
until Christmas. Now we could count the hours until the dawning of a New Year.
But we need to linger with Mary and Joseph for a little while longer, because
what happened immediately after Christmas is a stark reminder of the world in
which we live...
_____________________________
6. Stay
Focused!
We sometimes miss the great opportunities of life
because we get sidetracked. I once heard the tale of a talented and gifted
bloodhound in England that started a hunt by chasing a full-grown male deer.
During the chase a fox crossed his path, so he began now to chase the fox. A
rabbit crossed his hunting path, so he began to chase the rabbit. After chasing
the rabbit for a while, a tiny field mouse crossed his path, and he chased the
mouse to the corner of a farmer's barn. The bloodhound had begun the hunt
chasing a prized male deer for his master and wound up barking at a tiny mouse.
It is a rare human being who can do three or four different things at a
time--moving in different directions.
The Apostle Paul knew his number one priority in life
was to live his life to the honor and glory of God by preaching the Gospel.
However, we know that Paul is not in a plush hotel room but in prison. He
receives a report that all is not well at the Church in Philippi. His very life
could be ended at any moment. And the list goes on. However, the Apostle Paul
would not allow anything to cross his path that would deter him from his
priority. Paul knew that his new life was a gift from God, not from the
promises of humanity. His life was to be lived for his master. Nothing would
sidetrack him of that priority!
Eric S. Ritz
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7. Living by
the Calendar Instead of the Clock (New Year's)
"Leisure," from the Latin, means "to be free." Leisure is anything that restores you to peace while you are doing it. So, gardening, golf, reading, puzzles, and many other things can restore us to peace as we do them. Another cousin of leisure is the word "paragon." This little-used word means "the second thing that we do in life that keeps the first thing in tune." Hence, our work may draw energy from us, and we have then a "paragon," a leisure thing we do in order to restore us.
Most often, to build toward leisure demands that we
disassemble something else. In Thomas Moore's book Meditations, he tells of a
pilgrim walking along a road. The pilgrim sees some men working on a stone
building.
"You look like a
monk," the pilgrim said.
"I am that," said the monk.
"Who is that working on the abbey?"
"My monks. I'm the abbot."
"It's good to see a monastery going up," said the pilgrim.
"They're tearing it down," said the abbot.
"Whatever for?" asked the pilgrim.
"So we can see the sun rise at dawn," said the abbot.
"I am that," said the monk.
"Who is that working on the abbey?"
"My monks. I'm the abbot."
"It's good to see a monastery going up," said the pilgrim.
"They're tearing it down," said the abbot.
"Whatever for?" asked the pilgrim.
"So we can see the sun rise at dawn," said the abbot.
Richard A. Wing
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8. Who Needs
Resolutions? We Need a Revolution!
Welcome to this New Year. I trust that one of your
resolutions for this year is to be in worship every week. Good for you. That's
one resolution you've kept for at least one week.
I heard about one poor fellow who decided to make only resolutions this year he
could keep. He resolved to gain weight, to stop exercising, to read less and
watch more TV, to procrastinate more, to quit giving money and time to charity,
to not date any member of the cast of Baywatch, and to never make New Year's
resolutions again.Maybe he's onto something. Why torture ourselves when we never keep those resolutions more than a week anyway?
What we need, of course, is not another resolution, but a revolution. We need a turning point in our lives. Like the wise men of old we need to catch a glimpse of a guiding light, and we need to follow that light to a New Life in Christ.
King Duncan, www.Sermons.com
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9. Seven
Resolutions
I like a list of
resolutions prepared by the Rev. Walter Schoedel. He calls them '7-UPS for the
New Year.' No, this has nothing to do with the soft drink. These 7-UPS fall
under the heading of attitudes and actions.
The first is WAKE UP--Begin the day with the Lord. It is His day. Rejoice in it.
The second is DRESS-UP--Put on a smile. It improves your looks. It says something about your attitude.
The third is SHUT-UP--Watch your tongue. Don't gossip. Say nice things. Learn to listen.
The fourth is STAND-UP--Take a stand for what you believe. Resist evil. Do good.
Five, LOOK-UP--Open your eyes to the Lord. After all, He is your only Savior.
Six, REACH-UP--Spend time in prayer with your adorations, confessions, thanksgivings and supplications to the Lord.
And finally, LIFT-UP--Be available to help those in need--serving, supporting, and sharing.
If you're going to make New Year's resolutions this year, let me suggest Rev. Schoedel's list.
Why do we bother to make New Year's resolutions in the first place? Why do we feel this need each January 1 to set new goals? Maybe it is because resolutions help us to identify our priorities. They answer the Question: how do I want to invest my time, energy, money, and talents in this New Year? The New Year reminds us that time is passing. It is up to each of us to maximize the potential of every moment.
Walter Schoedel
_____________________
10. Keep
Your Head Right
Pastor Stephen Brown taught swimming and diving for a
number of years. He tells about a young boy named Billy. Billy had watched so
many professional divers and wanted so much to dive like them that he refused
to take time to learn the basics. Time after time Brown tried to help Billy see
that the most important thing about diving was to keep his head in the proper
position. If his head entered the water properly, Brown explained, the rest of
his body would enter the water properly--at least, more properly than it had
been. Billy would dive into the pool, do a belly flop, and come up grinning,
"Mr. Brown," he would shout, "were my feet together?"
"Billy, I don't care whether your feet were together or not," Brown shouted back. "Make sure your head is straight, then everything else will work out."
"Billy, I don't care whether your feet were together or not," Brown shouted back. "Make sure your head is straight, then everything else will work out."
The next time Billy would stand on the edge of the pool and really concentrate.
Then he would dive and, once again, make a mess of it. "Mr. Brown, were my
hands together?"
"Billy," Brown would groan in frustration, "I'm going to get you a neck brace and weld it onto your head. For the hundredth time, if your head is right the rest of you will be right. If your head is wrong, the rest of you will be wrong."
And isn't that true in all of life? If our head is wrong, our marriage will
probably suffer. If our head is wrong, our priorities will be fouled up. If our
head is wrong, it may even affect our health in a negative way. God understands
our distress and God seeks to make us new persons so that we can handle our
distress more effectively."Billy," Brown would groan in frustration, "I'm going to get you a neck brace and weld it onto your head. For the hundredth time, if your head is right the rest of you will be right. If your head is wrong, the rest of you will be wrong."
Stephen Brown, When Being Good Isn't Good Enough,
Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. Adapted by King Duncan
____________________
11. Humor:
Resolutions
Wife to Spouse: "I don't want to brag, but here
it is February and I've kept every one of my New Year's resolutions. I've kept
them in a manila folder in the back of my desk!"
Orben's Current Comedy
_____________________
12. Boast
not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a
day may bring forth.
Proverbs 27:1
___________________________
13. Getting
Started
Some of us make resolutions like one man, named
George, I heard about recently. He said to a friend: "There's nothing like
getting up at six in the morning, going for a run around the park, and taking a
brisk shower before breakfast."
His friend Bob asked, "How long have you been
doing this?"
George said: "I start tomorrow."_________________________
14. Humor:
90 Days
We're only two days away from the New Year, and I can
feel the anticipation--or dread, depending on your point of view--growing.
I heard one guy say he already dreads the New Year. He said, "The holidays aren't quite over and already I'm about 90 days ahead on my calories and 90 days behind on my bills." Some of you can identify with him.
I heard one guy say he already dreads the New Year. He said, "The holidays aren't quite over and already I'm about 90 days ahead on my calories and 90 days behind on my bills." Some of you can identify with him.
King Duncan
