Be of good cheer

by chuckofish

Well, it’s time to take down all the Christmas finery and pack up all the seasonal decorations. Sigh. Time to clean up and move on in the new year.

But, hey, we were driveway sittin’ on Sunday, January 1! Quite a turnaround from the weather a week ago…

Daughter #1 starts her new job today and we are getting used to our new routine. I mean, we have a dog (!)–at least until daughter #1 finds new digs. But there is no rush, since everyone–even the OM–is quite taken with Mr. Smith. And, of course, we don’t like to be accused of getting too set in our ways.

The sermon on Sunday was on Psalm 90 which is good reading for the start of a new year. (Read it here.)

Tim Challies ruminates on the new year here. “A new year has opened before us and like a watchman gazing into dense fog, we see just a few steps ahead and only vague shadows looming beyond. We do not know what the year will bring, whether great triumphs or great failures, great joys or great sorrows, great gains or great losses. It could be the best of all years or the worst, the easiest or the hardest, the most heart-warming or the most heart-breaking…But this fog is a blessing for it compels us to shift our gaze from our circumstances and to fix them on our God.”

This is a thoughtful essay about how “the noises and messes and struggles of life are precisely the things worth living for.” I totally agree.

Carl Trueman once again articulates my thoughts magnificently: “Yes, the culture is a mess. Yes, I fear what the world will look like in which my granddaughter will grow to adulthood. Yet I rejoice at the blessing I have in being able to see her, to hold her, and to delight in her. Christianity is, after all, a religion that sets priorities. Dealing with the crazy people reducing our culture to rubble is important but it should be cheerfully done. After all, it is hard to be unhappy when cradling one’s granddaughter in one’s arms.”

PSA: Ligonier has a new daily devotional podcast: Things Unseen with Sinclair Ferguson. Subscribe here.

Doe this to day; as God this day gives thee a New yeare, and hath not surpriz’d thee, nor taken thee away in the sinnes of last yeare; as he gives thee a new year, doe thou give him a New-years-gift, Cor novum, a new and a Circumcised heart, and Canticum novum, a new Song, a delight to magnifie his name, and speak of his glory, and declare his wondrous works to the Sonnes of men.

–John Donne, The Sermons of John Donne, Vol. 6

Happy New Year! “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)