It’s the New Year. And we sure can use a new one. Problem is the new one isn’t looking much better than the last.
Okay, that isn’t the way a Christian is supposed to think. We’re supposed to step into the New Year full of faith and anticipation. I’m working on getting there.
At Passover the Jews would say, “Next year in Jerusalem!” It was a statement of hope and faith. No matter how bad things are, maybe this next year will find us returning to the Promised Land, to hopes and dreams fulfilled.
Only this New Year finds the Promised Land filled with the terrors of war. Unspeakable things have happened, and apparently continue to happen. The images that confront us challenge us to ask, “How is this even possible?” And it is not only in the Land of Promise that these horrors happen. It seems every continent is under attack with evil. The ability of humanity to be “inhuman” seems unlimited. As a race, we have chosen evil.
The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Rome, described the human race in its fallenness as given over to a “depraved mind.” The King James translation has the word “reprobate” there. Both describe a mind that is completely turned upside down, incapable of reasoned thinking, impervious to moral impulse. The Greek word Paul used was adokimos. It literally means “untested” or ”untried.”
The assayer tests metals to see what they are. The gold miner presents his findings to the assayer in hope that it proves to be of a fine grade, more gold and less “other stuff.” The reprobate or depraved mind is, in Paul’s words, “untested,” that is it cannot be trusted, there is every reason to believe that it is not what it claims to be. It’s mostly “other stuff.”
And so our world. So many people claiming to speak the truth, to fight for the truth, to have the truth “on their side.” In reality, the truth was usually left back somewhere in the rubble.
But that doesn’t mean the truth isn’t there. It is there. It can be found and It can be lived. The truth is found in the person of Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. These things are found exclusively in Him.
So we can step into this New Year, frightening as it may be, with faith, hope, and confidence. Jesus is not finished revealing that He is the Truth. And He is doing that around the world, even in the midst of human generated chaos. If we pay attention we will see Him doing just that, in our lives and the lives of those around us.
No, the world is not getting better. But our lives are. We are living in the light of His presence and power, of His goodness. I want to enter the New Year with that hope. I will get to see more of Jesus in 2024.
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