The year that’s ending has been a roller coaster ride with good news and bad. Earlier in the year, Putin decided he was Peter the Great and invaded Ukraine, bringing death, misery and death. The West responded, not enough in my estimation, but the Ukrainians thus far have kept the Russian wolves at bay.
Our environment and care for the earth took top billing as well. A new dedication to ending our reliance on fossil fuels has brought about a pitched battle between those who fear change and those who know change must come for the earth to survive.
As a people of faith, we face challenges in the year to come: protecting the earth God gave us, changing the structure of society so none are hungry or homeless, eliminating the racism that is a stain on our Nation, and the list goes on. Addressing these challenges requires our response as a community committed to the Gospel, the Good News, that came with the Christmas we just celebrated. We can build a new world; we just need to work together to do it.
Prayer for the Day
Always present God, as we come to the end of the year,
Be with us in our regrets and failures, for they are many;
Bestow on us your grace so we are able to move into a future
Embraced by your promise of new beginnings.
Source of strength, hold us fast to our faith in you,
So we are able to enter a new year with resilience and strength.
In the name of the One who is our source of strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
And now we welcome the new year, full of things that never have been.
- Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet (1875-1925)
Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.
- Germany Kent, American print and broadcast journalist
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth,
Do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43: 18-19