Counting down to the end of another year.
That's one way of looking at it, isn't it? 2015 is coming to an end. For some of us this was a good year, for some of us it was a difficult year. Probably for most it was a mixture of both.
But another way of looking at the same number of days is, we are counting days to the beginning of a new year, 2016. What will this new year bring? Only the Lord really knows.
But it can be a new beginning.
At Freedom, every Sunday we stand outside in a circle before the service. Well, I'm not sure we've ever made it look like a real circle! But you get the idea. The thought is, before we go into worship the Lord, we leave whatever is weighing us down in that circle. We move forward.
I think a change in year requires the same attitude. I'm not much for new year's resolutions, but I do think a time to prayerfully reflect is a healthy thing to do.
Perhaps using these final days of 2015 to (with the Lord's help) leave behind things that we need to let go of? It's hard to take hold of something new, when our hands are full of something old.
This is also a good time to think of all the things in 2015 we have to be grateful for.
As the writer of Hebrews tells us,
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Heb 12-1-2 (NIV)
