Reflections on a Year

As we all come to the end of another calendar year, and I celebrate the anniversary of my birth, I was thinking about some of the lessons I’ve been learning (or relearning) in the past year. In no particular order:

• Just because someone endeavors to take care of their body doesn’t mean they won’t face physical challenges and decline over time. Exercise and diet are important for stewarding our bodies, but life in a fallen world with broken bodies leads to the need for doctors. But one day we’ll receive new bodies suited to life in the perfect new creation.
  
  
• Even though someone may be labeled as an extrovert doesn’t mean they are good at building relationships. And even though I’m an introvert doesn’t mean I have an excuse for avoiding people. All good relationships require time and effort, regardless of whether we go to church together, work together, or live together. One day we’ll live in the new kingdom in perfect harmony, but for now we all have to deal with difficult or broken relationships. Sometimes we have to let go of our expectations of other people.
  
  
• God has created each of us as unique human individuals. As an old book by Barbara Johnson noted, “Normal is just a setting on your dryer.” Some of the standards that are thought to represent the “proper Christian life,” are actually just cultural stereotypes that have no basis in Scripture. When we are prone to judge others for their appearance, habits, or interests, we need to go first to the Bible as our guide for right, wrong, or somewhere in between.
  
  
• Just because someone goes to church sometimes and may profess faith in Christ doesn’t mean they are living under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Some may go to church every week for decades and yet choose to ignore most of the commands of Scripture. Living in a “churchy” culture allows many to slip through with a Christian façade. There is coming a day when all will be called to account.
  
  
• There are no “one and done” aspects to the Christian life. Faith, sanctification, endurance, repenting from sin, forgiving others, peace, joy, hope—all require turning to God every day. And we all need regular encouragement and exhortation to keep walking on the narrow way of salvation.

As we launch into a new year, let us “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).

© 2023 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

It'll Be Okay

I ran across this quote from John Lennon today:

“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

Lennon’s views on religion are questionable, but this quote is particularly apropos for Christians. We know this world is broken, and we all suffer in various ways, but one day it will be made right. After Christ returns, those who belong to Him will get to experience the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwell” (2 Peter 3:13 ESV). But until that day, things are not okay because it’s not the end.

Today’s reading in Daily Light on the Daily Path goes along well with that thought:

“Ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you. This is not your rest. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. With Christ; which is far better.

“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. There the wicked cease from troubling: and there the weary be at rest.

“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Deut. 12:9,   Mic. 2:10, Heb. 4:9, Heb. 6:19-20, John 14:2-3, Phil. 1:23, Rev. 21:4, Job 3:17, Matt. 6:20-21, Col. 3:2)” -Public domain

As we start a new year, some people may be optimistic about the days ahead, others (like me) may be cynical, and many will be somewhere in between. The older I get, the more I hope that Christ’s return is soon. I’ve never exactly had any “youthful optimism,” and I’m ready for that final day to come. There is nothing about this life that I will miss, because the things I most enjoy here will be even better in eternity.

However, assuming that there is at least another year of life ahead, Peter reminds us that we are to be people of holiness and godliness as we wait (2 Pet. 3:11-12). We should proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and let our lights shine before men (2 Cor. 4:5-6) as we love and serve one another. We can remind one another and share the good news that for all those who follow Jesus as Lord and Savior there is coming a day when everything will be okay.

“We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).

 © 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.