We have spent a lot of time getting ready lately. We have been getting ready for Christmas,making plans, working out the details. We have been getting ready for 2010,dreaming,praying,discerning where God is leading us in the next year. We have been doing this in church and at home. One could argue that we spend so much time getting ready for things that are going to happen that we miss what is happening around us at this very moment. And yet, Christmas is different. For in Christmas we are getting ready for that which has already happened.

How do we do that?  How is that different from the way we get ready for the New Year?  We’re working in two different directions, getting ready for both a past and a future event.  But the two have more in common than we might think, as we use the first to help with the second.  I know I’m talking circles, but stick with me.  

Christ has already been born.  This is a past event.  The New Year is upon us, a present and future event.  Often we place our faith in that which will happen, claiming that, “This will be the year that I…”  We then allow how we handle the situations in front of us to dictate our relationship with and understanding of Christ.  Depending on how things go, we then decide whether God is near or distant.  What needs to happen is for us to shift those two around.

When we place our faith in that which has already happened (the birth of Jesus), that event then dictates how we approach the coming year.  We move into 2010 without fear, because we know God is near.  Regardless of what 2010 throws at us, we know we are not alone, and we know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13).

May that strength, the strength of Christ, carry you into and through the coming year.

Peace,

Patrick