The New Year is a time of renewal reminiscent of the fresh starts each school year brought when we were children.  Starting fresh is intoxicating to those of us encumbered with a litany of bad habits and regrets we would like to leave behind. Overwhelmingly those who resolve to leave baggage behind each new year fail.  Most can make it a couple of weeks, a few for a couple of months, and a small minority past six months.

As the habits and regrets each day mount, we trod along hoping for another fresh start fix.   Like junkies we crave a fix and decide to move, or change jobs or one is forced upon us through the tragedy of divorce, fire, or death.  With each start we once again resolve to change only to fail again.  Our hope for the next new year renews and the cycle repeats.

There has to be a better way.

H. Belloc, in his essay, “The Little Old Man”, said, “ that of everything which runs or creeps upon earth, man is the fullest of sorrow”. Sometimes, the events of life send Belloc’s observation about sorrow cascading deep into our psyches. We may feel overcome, even overwhelmed by the loss of loved ones that seem almost impossible to bear. But, over time, great sorrow is replaced by joyful confidence that God is with us and all is well.

Jesus was described once by the prophet Isaiah as “a man of sorrows”. A being that could have had anything He wanted, and died on a cross, how strange that would seem to a person who didn’t know the greatest story ever told! But, now, He does have everything, eternity in heaven with His loving Father! From Calvary’s misery to heaven’s glory . He’s home, home at last. And He calls us home too. Little sheep, come home to Me, and be safe at last, safe at last.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair…, struck down, but not destroyed… For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Selections from I Corinthians Chapter 4 (NIV)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

I’ve been to war.

Not a figurative war, which many people have experienced within their unique circumstance, but a real war where bullets fly both ways and mortars and rockets explode with the intent of ending lives.  My war experience, of course, is no longer unusual as the United States continues adding to the longest period of conflict in our history.  I understand the damage a war can do.

Private, figurative wars, the ones without bullets, have been raging for centuries and are just as spiritually damaging as the real wars are physically damaging.  Spiritual wars are waged in our minds as we deal with the loss of loved ones, the breaking of a heart through shattered marriages, the breaking of promises and vows, the loss of stability financial or emotional.  The lists go on and undoubtedly will touch everyone who will read this paragraph.  The private wars have touched my family and me through suicide, cancer, divorce, death…

“Christians are horrible, they are so mean.”

Not only is this sentiment too common today, but these were the words I heard from one of our varsity basketball players this morning.  We had just finished a win over a Christian school who’s crowd began a personal verbal attack on the player over perceived rough defense.  The 15 year-old player was left reeling from a crowd of adults screaming at her. As I overheard her talking to her mother on the phone, the words of dissappointment stung with each syllable.

“Christians are supposed to be the best, but they are the worse.”

Unfortunately this was the second Christian school in as many days who had behaved in a similar manner.  I must confess my own behavior has not always been exemplary during close and heated games.  The words this morning stung because it brought home how much my behavior represents Christ, too often in a negative way.

The United States went through a phase of t-shirts, bracelets, and other Christian merchandise that challenged us to ask”What Would Jesus Do?”  or “WWJD?” when confronted with a decision.  Apart from the superficial nature of t-shirt Christianity, I wonder if we would have been better served challenging believers to “LLJD” or “live like Jesus did.”  I’m sure there was no room in Jesus’ life for screaming at a 15 year-old basketball player no matter how hard the foul.