BLESSED NEW YEAR!

As we stand on the brink of a New Year, we wonder what the future holds. Most of us probably approach a milestone like this with a combination of excitement and a bit of apprehension. We’re excited about what 2020 might mean for us, and for the same reason we’re aware of possible perils, dangers, and difficulties. Certainly, both reactions are appropriate. After all, we have just passed through the most tumultuous year since 2001. But 2020 was different in that the horror of 2001 brought us together, whereas the horror of 2020 has torn us apart.

Waste Not…

All the pundits are offering their usual guesses as to what 2021 brings. What is one to say about the end of the so-called “wasted” year? A year where little got done, and few individuals, businesses or governments accomplished their year-end goals. We might begin by asking God. Yet it has struck me how little His name and that of His son have been mentioned in all the hoopla, hype, and headlines about COVID-19. Given the calendar we all use is based on the years since Christ’s birth you’d think He’d have some input.

People looking back on this past year might be excused for thinking that some extra-worldly entity called “COVID-19”, rather than the Creator, was at the center of Western man’s spiritual attention. They might be right. As far as we have come technologically and materially, we seem to have drifted remarkably from a belief in moral right and wrong. Everyone, including the church seems to be looking to science not the Holy Spirit for guidance. I say that because have I often heard church leaders listen to the medical community on what we should be doing, or should I say not doing; while only rarely have I heard on church leaders say regarding the pandemic, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”

Want Not

Amidst all the self-congratulations of surviving 2020 that we hear around the world, let us remember that without Jesus, the world would have ended long ago. We owe everything to the good hand of God who has graciously allowed us to go this far. And only by His mercy, grace and love may we go on from here. Because of Jesus we enter the New Year with the same confidence we have always had. No one knows what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. That alone is enough. Have Blessed, Jesus-Centered New Year.

 

 

PATRICK LAI and his family have worked in SE Asia for over 37 years. His experience in doing business with Jesus has brought him to understand the meaning of work and worship in the marketplace. He started 14 businesses in four countries, six of which are still operating. Patrick and his wife, May, mentor and coach businesspeople working where there are few or no Christians. Check out Patrick’s latest book, Workship, now available in paperback and e-book.

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