Thoughts on New Year's Eve

I took the occasion of the day off from work today to look at the blogs of some of my friends today, and I thought to myself, "Why is it so hard for me to write a little bit on my blog?" I decided that there were three factors:

1. I struggle with insecurity about the interestingness of the content. I assume that what people want to see are pictures, not text. But frankly, I am not a visual person. I don't have a camera any more, and even when I did, it felt like I was always taking pictures for other people, not for my sake, and so it became oppressive. If maintaining a blog is to be a positive experience for me, I need just to choose to reject pressure to put pictures.
2. The Great Firewall of China makes it really hard to get to my blog. I have to use multiple proxy servers to reach it, and even then the speed is abysmal. I need a realistic way to make a posting. Well, I discovered today that I could make a posting by sending an email. That is realistic.
3. For some reason I have felt that I need to say something profound in order to justify making a posting. Well, to be honest, I do not often feel profound. Most of the time I live a very ordinary life. But if one motivation for a blog is to provide a sense of connection and continuity for separated friends, then perhaps profundity is not necessary. Furthermore, my English is on the decline. Doing some regular writing in English might help to stem the tide of my English decay.

In light of these observations, I aspire to write a little bit more often. No pictures, just text. Just to let you know what I am up to.

Notwithstanding my profundity disclaimer, I scarcely can resist waxing philosophical on the eve of a new year. So let me share with you what I noticed today in the passages suggested in the Daily Lectionary:

1. 1 Kings 3:5-14. I thought that this was really appropriate for the day. As I look ahead to the upcoming year, I feel a tad overwhelmed. How can I make this year more meaningful than the last? How can I make this year matter more, be a better steward, etc.? I think these thoughts are analogous to those of Solomon when he said:
   
   You have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?"
   
   I think the short answer is to pray specifically for wisdom. This habit is repeatedly extolled in the Proverbs. I forget to do it, though.
   
2. James 4:13-17. I receive a lot of godly influence from my roommate Paul. He is one who sets goals, and he encourages me to do the same. This passage provides an important context for this wise habit, viz., humility:
   
   Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
   
   Goal setting and planning must be done in an attitude of humility. I am reminded of another passage:
   
   Unless the Yahweh builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1-2)
   
   I wrote my goals in a hurry on Thursday. I want to revisit them, and see if I can hear how the Spirit is prompting, and then rewrite them.
3. John 5:1-15. This was really good for someone who wants to take advantage of the momentum of a new year to effect change but feels shackled by past failure. Here is a man in bondage to paralysis for 38 years. When Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed, all he could answer was this: "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me." But the tear-jerking good news:
   
   Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
   
   This is a word of hope. 38 years of failure is no match for the word of Christ. Let's all have ears to hear the word of hope and healing that Christ is speaking to us, right now at this very moment.