A QUESTION OF FAITH
With Peter Bolton of the Hope Community Church SO this is Christmas. And what have you done? Another year over. And a new one just begun.
These are the familiar words of the Christmas song, sung by John Lennon, it is heard every Christmas. But the song isn’t simply about Christmas, it challenges us to reflect on the year which has gone by, very quickly!
It doesn’t seem two minutes since last Christmas, where as the year gone? But what about the year that’s gone by it has been quite an important one for the nation with Brexit. For us personally it will have been a year with ups and downs, times of great encouragement and times of regret. We may have begun this new year with lots of hope, in terms of making promises to ourselves and to others not to make the same mistakes again. Yet even after only a few days we may feel we haven’t stuck to it. This itself can make us feel a little frustrated.
I stopped making new year resolutions years ago, why? Aren’t they important? They can be, but what I discovered was with my best efforts I wasn’t able to keep all my new year resolutions. Each year became similar to the one I had left behind. So what’s the answer? Don’t bother? But what about the broken relationships?
What about the streak in me that needs to be changed? What about loving my neighbour as myself. There are so many good things that need to come out of me, yet with the best intentions in the world, I don’t seem to be able to change? Positive thinking doesn’t seem to last. The apostle Paul in the Bible was a man who had his fair share of struggles in life, at times found himself doing what he didn’t want to do, doing what he shouldn’t.
Then he came to the realisation that trying to simply do better wasn’t working he needed an strength outside of himself. He found the strength he needed in Jesus Christ. Interesting in the same letter, where we read about his struggles (Romans) he writes of the need to have his mind transformed, that is, allow God by His grace and Mercy to transform his mind. Promises are all well and good, it is important to evaluate what has gone in the pass and what we may possibly face in the future, but sadly positive thinking alone won’t do. We need the God of Christmas to guide and lead us, to bring the change we can’t, so this time next year when we hear the words of ‘so this is Christmas… another year gone we can reflect and say it’s been a different and better year because I didn’t rely on myself, but on the God who created me.