What me worry?

The holidays have blown by with the winter winds. The lights are down and stored in the rafters. The pounds of, well everything, are pressing all the guilt and new goals buttons. And here it is a new year. How does that feel?

I for one am not certain. These last few years have been weird, to say the least. There is a sadness in my heart as I see people more and more consumed by fear, suspicion, greed, lack, anger, and jealousy. Where do I fall in all of those? Well, I guess each of them has been entertained in my heart at one time or another in this topsy-turvy roller coaster life called the present.

I have enough water under the bridge to say, I don’t ever remember a time such as this. I’ve seen some rough years, Vietnam, Watts Riots, the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr., the space race, the Berlin Wall, Y2K, the Twin Towers, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan an so much more, but I’ve not seen anything like these days. How do I respond?

Before you sigh with depression and move your mouse to x the close button, give me a minute to change my tune.

I still have a small fire kindled in my heart. A smidgen of belief and a coal of hope warming my thoughts this rainy California winter evening. You see I’ve read a best seller called the bible. I know, I know, here he goes, preaching his religious rhetoric. But no, that’s not what I’ll do, I don’t want to hear it, and neither do you. BUT . . . (I knew it) . . . I will say this. Having read the book, I have some understanding of the end of the story, and spoiler alert, love wins. Yup, the entirety of the old testament and new covenant gospels can be boiled down to this one simple statement.

Love never fails.

You see Love covers a multitude of sins, let’s just say that is more sins than you or I can keep track of. Love believes all, hopes all, and endures all. Love sent a Savior. Not to condemn, not to accuse, not to find fault, but to say, your Father in Heaven loves you and can’t imagine a future without you. He has always wanted you as part of His family. God is love. I know you have some really big questions about that, but let’s not go down that road right now, ok? I want to concentrate on that one statement, LOVE NEVER FAILS, and ponder what it could mean for you and me.

If the book is true like I believe, if it is a communication from outside our space and time, if there is a God who is truly Love and became Love incarnate to deliver a message of hope; and If as that messenger, Jesus, said, that you and I inherited his love, his authority to hope and love others and care for everything and everybody, (yes even those you don’t like), then there is a bright side to life. If I am the intersection where heaven touches earth, if His Kingdom of love makes its home in my heart, then I am the beginning of hope in all whom I encounter. I can choose that option today.

I can either continue to buy into the chaos, let the hate rhetoric drain my peace until I shrink in fear, worry, and judging everyone, - or - I can say no to the lies. I can choose to feed the other wolf. I can say this is the day the Lord has made and I WILL rejoice in it. I will HOPE in it. I will LOVE in it.

It’s a good day to say hi to a stranger. Give one of my meals to somebody who doesn’t have one. Share my coat and blanket with somebody under the weather. It’s a good day to smile, like I know something inside, I can try to look on the bright side of life and say, “What, me worry?”

Worry is a killer. Joy is a giver, equipper, replenisher, and healer.

Now that is just making me happy, and I hope in some small way I’ve managed to bring a smile to your face. Please take a moment, a day, a lifetime, and have a Happy New Year.