Where Sheer Optimism Leaves Off

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day
with no mistakes in it yet?” 

~ L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables

   – – – – – –

This is a hopeful thought as I sit to write on this quiet, blue morning before the world begins to spin faster and dictate my day.  In some ways last year was a challenging one for Dana and I (and for some of you, too) and sometimes it’s easier to believe that our mistakes lie in wait for us in the next day or the next year.

 

To some extent this is true; we all bare the imprint of our fallen parents and to walk without error is not possible.  But to walk without hope is the domain of those who have not seen the glory of the Lord in the land of the living.

 

In studying the Good Shepherd of John 10 this year, I have come to see I would be an empty wanderer in this world and without a true home if Jesus were not my Shepherd.  As a good shepherd, He carefully goes before me and calls me by name.  He is lovingly leading Dana and I where we may learn of Him and learn his voice – through Valleys of Despair, Sloughs of Despondency, Shadows of Death, Doubting Castles, and Vanity Fairs; and He will surely lead us in our last days through the great River and safely to His Celestial City.  “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Ps. 23:6).

 

Although I may bring my own mistakes with me, I know that which befalls me in this new year is no mistake… I am being led.  For those of us who hear the voice of the Shepherd, this is a comforting thought indeed as we enter the unknown of 2017.

If this is not your prospect in the new year, Jesus declares to you: “I am the door.   If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture… I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:9, 14).

 

 

May this peace be yours in 2017.

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Hymn for a New Year

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the new year:
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

“But he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and
put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’

“So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.”

~ From “The Gate of the Year” by Minnie Louise Haskins

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I look not back; God knows the fruitless efforts,
The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets.
I leave them all with Him who blots the record,
And graciously forgives, and then forgets.

I look not forward; God sees all the future,
The road that, short or long, will lead me home,
And He will face with me its every trial,
And bear for me the burdens that may come.

I look not round me; then would fears assail me,
So wild the tumult of earth’s restless seas,
So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,
So vain the hope of comfort and of ease.

I look not inward; that would make me wretched;
For I have naught on which to stay my trust.
Nothing I see save failures and shortcomings,
And weak endeavors, crumbling into dust.

But I look up–into the face of Jesus,
For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;
And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness,
And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.

Amen.

~ Annie Johnson Flint

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