New Year, Old Ways

With each New Year we have a sense of starting fresh...pulling out an unmarked page to write on...improving our lives...renewing positive commitments and separating from negative behaviors and habits.  But one problem we have is that we are made of the same old stuff that we were in the Old Year.  And people are made of the same old stuff these days that they were made of when Christ walked the earth and when Adam hid in the garden and when David  looked on Bathsheba.  We need to be ruthlessly honest as we evaluate ourselves.  After all, why do we need to make New Year's resolutions if we don't have some tendency to veer off course?  

How would we respond in this New Year if Jesus made an appearance today in our town, on our street, at our workplace?  Would we run to him, run from him or run Him over?  Why was it and why is it that the One who actually fashioned all of Creation might be rejected when He shows up in the midst of His handiwork?   I think that the attitudes of those around Jesus 2000 years ago are very much like the attitudes we hold today toward Him.  To some He is a reminder of our flawed, self-centered nature and must be destroyed in an attempt to preserve the illusion of delusion.  To others He is the confirmation that the One who made us knows everything about us and still longs to be with us.  And yet, there are many that seek to kill Him over and over again.  But He rises to live in each generation because He doesn't need a New Year's resolution to amend His ways.  Perhaps our wisest resolution is to acknowledge our inability to stay on course and simply bow before His resolution to revive and rescue us.

2 Corinthians 1:¹⁰ And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.