Happy New Year

In case I forget to say this later, let me begin with Happy New Year!

As I look at those three words strung together I see them each individually.  Happy. New.  Year.

Happy.  If we examine this word from any dictionary we would see meanings such as "feeling or showing pleasure or contentment".  It is "having a sense of confidence or satisfaction in or with something or someone". Happy is a word used to describe a moment - a feeling.  We have sang about it in many ways and over the many decades this world has existed. Smiley face - happy.  Frown face - not happy.

New.  I would summarize it in just a few words - Not old.  Fresh. Never before seen or experienced.  Brand new.  We understand that clearly as most of us have been so blessed to be the owner of something "brand new" - not formerly used by anyone else.  We have had things, ideas thoughts etc that are for us new; never heard of before - never tried - never seen.  New.  

Year. In our world, a year is a passing through of twelve months.  More than that it represents time.  it represents days, weeks, months.  It holds within it an accumulation of seconds minutes and hours that all pass into the next and the next to complete the cycle.  A year - a framed time.  A year - expectations bundled up in the next 365 days that will stamp what was done or not done.  A year. 

In light of this, I would like to really ask you to choose what 2020 will be for you.  It offers to us the possibilities to be satisfied and content.  Paul said I have learnt (emphasis on the word learnt) how to be content in whatever state he finds himself.  Choose also to be contented my friends.  Choose to be happy regardless of what you face. 

Choose to go into 2020 with an openness for new experiences.  You have never lived those days before.  Remember God took the people of Israel to a place they had never been before.  He gave them new experiences, opened their eyes to things they had never before imagined.  He fed them manna from heaven and parted the Red Sea.  God is able to do for you new things if you are willing.

Choose to see the calendar as days of wonder.  Let it be a time span for the greatness of God to be manifested and experienced.

Happy New Year.  Hallelujah!