Will it be a Good Year?

On New Year’s Day I left Church and said to the pastor “this year will be better, I know it!” His response to me was a cautious “if you say so.” I have been thinking about this and praying about it most of this week. 

What possessed me to speak so assuredly that 2017 would be better?  Do I really know that?  Of course not!  And if it is not better when I look back at this time next year will I feel that God has let me down? Or will I believe that it is my fault? And what does it even mean to have a good year?

I believe all I can say as a person of faith is that I am certain that regardless of how the year unfolds, God will be with me and with us.  As we look ahead to our personal and communal realities, there isn’t anything else we can be sure of.  We might love our job; we could become unemployed or we could be dissatisfied.  We could enjoy good health or we might become ill or suffer chronic pain.  Perhaps someone in our family or circle of friends will know a great success or defeat.  There could be awesome family celebrations, illness or death.  The point is we really do not know.  I am not sure about you, but I am glad I do not know. 

Living in the present moment can be very hard for me.  I look ahead and plan and prepare. Sometimes I spend so much energy looking ahead that I fail to miss what is right in front of me, including the joy of the moment.  Of course, we have to be responsible and look ahead as good stewards of all the many gifts God has given us, but the gift that really matters is the gift each moment – it is there that God is found.

As I step into 2017 I am going to work at remembering that gift. When the moment is filled with pain, confusion or suffering, I hope to remember to stop and ask God to make God’s presence known. I will work at doing the same when confronted with a moment of joy or beauty.  These two extremes of human experience are often the times when I do not notice the presence of God until I take a moment to look back.  This year, I pray that I notice more quickly.

Perhaps if I work this year on being more in tune with God who loves me and has created all that is right and good in our universe and beyond then it will be a better year. Not because there is less tragedy, fear, violence, illness or hatred, but because I have opened myself to God and allowed God’s presence to be revealed to me, permeating all that I am and do. I believe this attitude “tune up” will make 2017 a better year, and that I can say with certainty.

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany; the feast when we recall that Jesus came not just to save one particular nationality or religious sect, but that God through Jesus desires to be made manifest to all humankind. This is our feast too. We continue to be the presence of Christ in our world and so God continues to be made manifest to all people through us, regardless of race, religion, nationality or sexual preference. Let us not shy away from noticing the presence of God and being the presence of God right now!