January 2012

Dear Friends,

A new year is upon us, and we celebrate because there is an opportunity to make a fresh start. Never mind that the calendar year is an arbitrary measure of time. We have agreed to go with this calendar system, and the date tells us that a whole new year is beginning. For many, the past year had more than its share of pain and loss. There were illnesses, deaths, financial hardships, broken relationships, depression and unhappiness. Who wouldn’t want to begin again, with renewed hope and optimism? Even folks who will remember 2011 for happy times, such as marriages, births, healings and miracles, may also relish the idea of a chance to break some less than ideal habits, like smoking or over-eating. Some will simply approach their lives with renewed expectations of success, and others will make lists of New Year’s resolutions and make promises of fealty to their intentions. The great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing in the first half of the twentieth century, took a dim view of such attempts:

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” This saying, which is found in a broad variety of lands, does not arise from the brash worldly-wisdom of an incorrigible. It instead reveals deep Christian insight. At the beginning of a new year, many people have nothing better to do than to make a list of bad deeds and resolve from now on—how many such “from-now-ons” have there already been? –to begin with better intentions, but they are still stuck in the middle of their paganism. They believe that a good intention already means a new beginning; they believe that on their own they can make a new start whenever they want. But that is an evil illusion; only God can make a new beginning with people whenever God pleases, but not people with God. Therefore, people cannot make a new beginning at all; they can only pray for one. Where people are on their own and live by their own devices, there is only the old, the past. Only where God is can there be a new beginning. We cannot command God to grant it; we can only pray to God for it. And we can pray only when we realize that we cannot do anything, that we have reached our limit, that someone else must make the new beginning. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 80)

It’s true that experience teaches us that resolutions seldom last. Maybe that’s because we haven’t brought God into it. This year, in whatever manner we make our fresh start, let’s resolve to put God first in our resolutions. There’s still no guarantee we’re going to drop those ten pounds, because praying to God for success isn’t the same as rubbing a genie’s lamp. But if we don’t involve God in our new year, there is zero chance of success, for one can do nothing apart from God.(John 15:5), and in him all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). And we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:3)!

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) May all your new beginnings begin with God in Christ. Happy New Year!

Grace and peace,

Martin

To read Martin's letters from past months, please click here.