Reflection and Resolution

December 31

It’s New Year’s Eve, the time when people gather together to ring out the old year and ring in the new with reflection and resolution. The chimes at the stroke of midnight give us a moment to congratulate ourselves on our successes and to remind ourselves regarding our failures that they are not permanent.

For some, it is merely a time to ‘get lost’ in the oblivion that alcohol provides. A poem, discolored and pressed within the pages of an old book says it well:

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In our discontented world, despair has taken hold where hate and strife have reigned for centuries untold. A people wring their hands, shed many bitter tears, and cry out to their brother who’s deaf and never hears.

The pompous and the brave strive valiantly to gain freedom’s cup for captive souls but bring them only pain. We raise our voice in protest, decry all human ill, but when the shouting’s over, the sickness lingers still.

So we’ll lose ourselves in comedy and violence on the screen, when face-to-face with tragedy we wish we’d never seen. We’ll smoke away our troubles or wash them down with wine, or cloak them very carefully within the printed line.

But we’ll keep on moving forward and never call, ‘Retreat!’ as we dance on to destruction on our gaily tripping feet.

“The Folly of Our Days” by Sandra Bamonte

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The poem states our dilemma, but it gives us no hope. For that, we must look to the Word of the Living God who assures us in Revelation 21:5-7 “…Behold, I make all things new…I am Alpha and Omega…to him that overcomes will I give all things. I will be his God and he shall be My people…”

We may face problems, but Jesus promises He will resolve them! The New Year gives man yet another opportunity to turn the turmoil of life over to Him—to the only One who can make all things new, to the ONE John refers to as the PANTOCRATOR—the One in charge of all things.