It's Already New Year's in Australia

We can (and do) make a big deal about tonight each year; it's New Year's Eve - at least it still is in Eastern Oregon... Or we can rest in the fact that New Year's has already happened in Australia.

I know the 'count down' is going to happen and a lot of folks are going to party hearty, but for the most part it's really not much more than a reason to party it up. I doubt many resolutions are going to amount to much ("...you say you have a resolution, well, you know...we'd all like to see the plan...)

Next year I'm guessing, will be pretty much the same for most people - but this fact is for sure, it will happen one day at a time...just like this year did.

Each 'New Year's' we have the promise of a new set of 365.25 days. The test is what we really do with them and all we can really do with them is live them one - day - at - a - time.

In Psalm 90, Moses, the Man of God prayed, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (verse 12) His prayer to God, was asking for God's help in 'numbering' or 'using' his days for good and not for evil. He was asking for God's help in using his days productively, not idly. That ought to be the way we approach every set of 365 we get. The new set starts over everyday (if we choose to look at it that way...). New Year's will come and go - what matters is what we do with the days (the day) we have.

I wish you a happy New Year and I pray that you number your days aright that you gain a heart of wisdom...

Paul

What's New (Year)?

Well, here we are on the last Friday before the New Year and it is like we have a clean slate in front of us. We can forget the past and press on toward... trouble in Pakistan, the presidential elections in November, a sluggish housing market and whatever else befalls us in that ethereal, non-tangible thing we call the future.

Funny thing is, the future never gets here because we are immovably locked into the present. The past is gone and all we can do is learn from the past; and the future isn't here yet because it is always ahead of us and we are stuck fast, super-glued, in the present. So we plan, scheme and dream about the future, the tomorrow that never gets here, because it is always right-now, today.

But hey! Happy New Year's! Here's hoping and praying that when your future 'right now' gets here (because it always is) that the dreams you had for yesterday and the ones you have for tomorrow find their reality in all you have at hand, your current right now.

All we can take into the present is our good intentions of doing things differently than we did in the past. All we can do is take the good intentions we have right now and hope that they find their fulillment as we wait and wait for the future that is eternally one-step ahead of us and always eluding our grasp.

My hope is that your good intentions become reality, and that your reality includes time for hearing from God. If anyone can deal with the future it is Him (the Only One Who transcends the future), and if you can accept it, He'll guide you into the 'future' present if you'll ask Him to...

Happy New Year!

Paul