Pastor’s Message for January 2023

     Happy New Year!

     A new year often signifies a new start for us, a chance to put the past behind us and focus on the future. We might try new things, or restart old things. We might try that diet and exercise program again, or attempt that reading program. Maybe we will try to get rid of those stubborn holiday pounds.

     But after a week or so, maybe two, the newness wears off. Before too long the drudgery of cold and snowy January days becomes normal for us, and each day that passes seems to pull us further from that sense of possibility to a sense of monotony. And soon we forget that God has given us a whole new year to enjoy.

     That’s why I need to hear the voice of the prophet in the book of Lamentations. Lamentations was written or inspired by the prophet Jeremiah. (There’s really no way of knowing who wrote the book.) It was written after the events of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The writer is lamenting the fall of the great city, the destruction of the temple, and the deaths of so many in the siege. It is not a happy book, by any means. There is a new reality for the Judean people, a reality of captivity and separation from their homeland, and in their minds a separation from the God who led their kingdom.

     But within the mourning there is this glimmer of hope, God has not abandoned God’s people. In fact, God is giving the people a new day. God’s faithfulness is steadfast. God’s love will remain with the people even in the midst of oppression and desolation. God gives us the opportunity with each rising of the sun to face the day with hope for what is to come. And even in the midst of the cold, even if all seems lost, God’s love is always new, for great is God’s faithfulness!

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)

May God bless you afresh every morning in this new year!

God loves you, and so do I,
Pastor Jim