A Fresh Page to Write On

Well, we made it. We are now into 2007. If you are like me, it will take a few weeks to get used to writing the ‘7' instead of a ‘6'. What a ride this past year has been. Some of us will have experienced doubt and disappointment while other will remember 2006 as a year of determination and delight. But we are all here.
I am not one for new years’ resolutions. I think we should make changes all year long. Every chance we get, do it! All the time and especially when we see something that is not right but can be right. For you who know anything about car companies you will know that the auto industry makes mechanical changes to their vehicles all year long. Maybe that is an example we can emulate. And wouldn’t it be just peachy keen if we could just wipe the slate clean and start all over again. Can’t be done, but it is a great idea to think on.
We start another year and nothing is on the slate. There is nothing on the paper. Just a fresh clean life on which to write. The mistakes of yesterday are just that. That was another page, another book, and this is new and fresh. At the school I am always encouraging the students to print the best they can. Some children are always in a hurry and they scribble. Lucky for them the teacher can read hieroglyphics. Others take their time and diligently transform the page into a work of art. I was a strange kid in school. Didn’t study much, didn’t get great marks with the exception of printing. I would practice and practice. I perfected the art of writing in my class. Hour after hour, I laboured to get it just right. Little did I realize at the time, what I was writing was wrong. “F” in composition but “A+” in writing.
I realized too late that it is not the way we write, it is what we write that is most important. What will you write this coming year? How you write is important but not as important as what you write. Will it be an adventure or will it be an appendage? To digress a little, we did not get one Christmas Letter this year. I guess no one had anything to brag about. In life we make our lives into what they are. We sculp them just as an artist will do with clay. In the field, clay is of little value but in the potter’s hand clay takes on beauty and grace.
We each have the ability to make something of our lives. I am not talking about taking stock of our life because that has a negative connotation. What I mean is looking at the great life God has given us and living it better. In His word he tells us to leave what is behind and press onto His high calling. This happens daily. On Sunday I shared with a few people that the most important way to start 2007 is on our knees. A quote I used was, “Prayer will keep us from sin or sin will keep us from prayer.” That is how a new year begins every morning.
As those of faith we need to realize that we are an endorsement of God. We are the bulletin board if you will, that God writes on. As people see us walking through life, what will they read? Will they read you as a poster and say to themselves, “I want that, I need that!” When God puts up a new poster each and every day, will we be on them? That is our new page.
Then there are our churches. What would they look like if all the churches were to wipe the page clean, no members, no adherents and the only way to be back on the role would be to attend? How long would the list be and how long would it take for your name to appear for the first time?
A new pastor went to visit a member of the church who had not been to church for a while. Sitting quietly in his livingroom watching the fire, little was said. After a while the pastor took one of the coals from the fire and set it down by itself. Soon, the glow diminished and then it went out. Taking it again he placed it back in the middle of the fire. The glow returned again. The next week, the gentleman was back in church.
Now, it’s your turn. Start writing.
Happy New Year! Rob