thoughts at the beginning of a new year
I think it's customary, every time a new year rolls around, to look back on your life in the previous year. Well, I confess I don't usually engage in that sort of thing. I'm a fairly present-focused person, as a rule. But last night, as Bethany and I arrived home from her family's house, while winding down and getting ready for bed, I took that custom in a bit of a different direction.
I started thinking, not about my own life, but about all the billions (trillions?) of people who've existed since the world began... about how God created them all, and loved them, and had a purpose for every one of their lives. I thought about how those lives have been very different from one another -- whether it be circumstantial differences like time period and location, or whether it be differences in activity and experience. All the joys of life, all the heartaches, all the serendipities and tragedies of the human race throughout the ages. And I felt, in some deep and nearly indefinable way, a kinship with all people, and an affection for them, and most of all, a desire for their good.
In the presence of a few lowly shepherds, an angel declared the advent of God's peace and good will among men. Ultimately, he heralded the one thing we need to overcome all the ills of the world: love. For love covers a multitude of sins. God himself is love, and love came to us in the person of Christ, and when he ascended back into the heavenly realm, he sent his Spirit to carry on the work of establishing his kingdom among the nations. That kingdom, too, is love.
So that is what I desired and prayed upon everyone last night, as the new year began. It's not the first time I've desired such a blessing, nor, certainly, the last, but I've been more conscious of that need and desire lately, and this was perhaps my strongest, most vivid experience of it yet.
In my own love for others, then, I wanted to effect some good in their lives. But I was aware that, realistically, there are so many people in the world I will never come in contact with, and even in cases where I do, there's no guarantee I'll be able to communicate God's love rightly, much less fully. So this experience helped me better understand, on a personal level, why some monks and ascetics (for instance) spend a lot of time in prayer for the world. Prayer is a very efficacious way to change things within our sphere, but it's the only way to extend influence beyond our sphere -- to help those we may otherwise never have the opportunity to, and to be a more powerful force in the world than our own small lives ever could. True, it's important not to neglect those around us; at the same time, what great good may come from prayer for the many more we have not met?
Christ himself taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." What is this but a prayer that love would increase throughout the earth? If I have any resolution on the first day of this new year, it's to pray this constantly, and to do what I can to bring it about.
I started thinking, not about my own life, but about all the billions (trillions?) of people who've existed since the world began... about how God created them all, and loved them, and had a purpose for every one of their lives. I thought about how those lives have been very different from one another -- whether it be circumstantial differences like time period and location, or whether it be differences in activity and experience. All the joys of life, all the heartaches, all the serendipities and tragedies of the human race throughout the ages. And I felt, in some deep and nearly indefinable way, a kinship with all people, and an affection for them, and most of all, a desire for their good.
In the presence of a few lowly shepherds, an angel declared the advent of God's peace and good will among men. Ultimately, he heralded the one thing we need to overcome all the ills of the world: love. For love covers a multitude of sins. God himself is love, and love came to us in the person of Christ, and when he ascended back into the heavenly realm, he sent his Spirit to carry on the work of establishing his kingdom among the nations. That kingdom, too, is love.
So that is what I desired and prayed upon everyone last night, as the new year began. It's not the first time I've desired such a blessing, nor, certainly, the last, but I've been more conscious of that need and desire lately, and this was perhaps my strongest, most vivid experience of it yet.
In my own love for others, then, I wanted to effect some good in their lives. But I was aware that, realistically, there are so many people in the world I will never come in contact with, and even in cases where I do, there's no guarantee I'll be able to communicate God's love rightly, much less fully. So this experience helped me better understand, on a personal level, why some monks and ascetics (for instance) spend a lot of time in prayer for the world. Prayer is a very efficacious way to change things within our sphere, but it's the only way to extend influence beyond our sphere -- to help those we may otherwise never have the opportunity to, and to be a more powerful force in the world than our own small lives ever could. True, it's important not to neglect those around us; at the same time, what great good may come from prayer for the many more we have not met?
Christ himself taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." What is this but a prayer that love would increase throughout the earth? If I have any resolution on the first day of this new year, it's to pray this constantly, and to do what I can to bring it about.