The Next Step

Did you make New Year’s Resolutions this year? If in the past you have ever managed to keep these resolutions for more than a month, you have done better than 52% of us, according to the Toronto Star.

Today [January 6th] is the final day in the church's season of Christmas. It was preceded by the season of Advent which was to allow us time to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. ‘Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.’ - Isaiah 7:14

But now that that celebration is over, what's the next step? Are we able to say with Henri Nouwen that Jesus was born in our lives and received as the one we came to know while waiting?

‘Advent does not lead to nervous tension stemming from expectation of something spectacular about to happen. On the contrary, it leads to a growing inner stillness and joy allowing me to realize that he for whom I am waiting has already arrived and speaks to me in the silence of my heart. Just as a mother feels the child grow in her and is not surprised on the day of the birth, but joyfully receives the one she learned to know during her waiting, so Jesus can be born in my life slowly and steadily and be received as the one I learned to know while waiting.’ - Henri J.M. Nouwen

If in fact we can make that statement, just what does it mean to us as individuals to ’know’ Jesus?

Too often the Christian message is purported to be doing the general good, that over-arching good intention or principle which sounds wonderful but actually does nothing specific. As the English poet William Blake said: ’The general good is the plea of the scoundrel, the hypocrite, the flatterer’

If we look at how the stories in the Bible record the ministry of Jesus, we can easily see the he didn’t deal in the ‘big’ picture. Rather he dealt with the specifics, with the individuals who were hurting, who were ostracized, who were forgotten. He got his hands dirty feeding the hungry, He drove the money-changers out of the temple. He met with the crowds, argued with his critics, and chastised those he disagreed with. He challenged his followers to live a certain way and chastised them when they didn’t. No, he didn’t just make sweeping statements of what SHOULD be done.

So it follows that our New Year's resolution as Christians, as we move from the season of Christmas into Epiphany, should be that we take up a specific cause, right a specific wrong, or help one individual at a time. Just think what a real and lasting difference that would make in this world!

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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