Well, it is that time again. It is time to look back at a year gone by and look ahead to the new one we are entering and wonder about all that God might have in store. Now, I know that for most people resolutions and new beginnings attached to a new year have become socially taboo. Nevertheless, for me these first few weeks have always been an important time of reflection, prayer, consideration, planning, and imagining all that God might do in the future based on all I have seen God do in the past. There is always, for me, an excitement for the new thing that is grounded in the gratitude of all the faithfulness that lies behind me. Remembrance and imagination always go hand in hand.
But this is a part of my daily routine. I have journaled almost daily since I was a teenager. I sit down each evening in bed, grab my journal off of my nightstand, and I write and reflect on all that has taken place in the day that has passed. This is followed by a time of writing and imagining all of the ways I hope to see God at work tomorrow. Sometimes, like these first couple of weeks into the New Year, I like to pull out old journals from years gone by and read about my hopes, my plans, my celebrations, my lamentations, my remembrances, and my imaginings for the new year. Some years seem to be filled with more joy than others, and some with more sorrow. I can look through the eyes of the 18-year-old boy who journaled in the January of 2007, not knowing it was the last one he would spend with his dad. I can look through the eyes of that excited 22-year-old young man who had just married his sweetheart on January 1, 2011. I can relive each year as I review the remembrances and imaginings of all that God has done and yet all the more God might do. It always fills me with a sense of hope and excitement.
So, I got out my journal this year on New Year’s Day. I remember how God has grown the church here in Sofia. I started the year praying for so many people to come to Christ. I wrote those names on a yellow sticky note and posted them next to me desk, as I always do when I am asking God for the impossible. I have taken down 7 of those names and transferred them to blue sticky notes. Those people now worship their Lord and Savior each Sunday in my living room. I will always mark this year as being that year when we baptized our first new believer here in Sofia. I celebrate the way in which I have watched my wife grow and mature in her knowledge of Jesus Christ, the church, and our faith through her educational journey at Trevecca Nazarene University. I celebrate that our son Jude was accepted into the Sofia Maple Bear Canadian School and has excelled in all of his studies which are in both English and Bulgarian. I remember and celebrate the blessed lives of the grandmothers we laid to rest: dear Mamaw in January and dear Nan in February. God was faithful and good to us as we grieved their loss. I celebrate all the ways that we have seen God work in our lives and the lives of those around us, doing everything that we cannot.
You know, ultimately, I look back and realize just how faithful God has been to his promises. God called us to Bulgaria to see people come to know abundant life in Jesus, to become a part of the community of the body of Christ, and to lead that body to being a blessing to all those in our community. I went back and read my first entry from our first year in Sofia. I could not have imagined some of the difficulties we would face. But I also could not have imagined the regular miraculous that we would experience. God has done everything we cannot and we celebrate that he is a promise keeper. People are discovering the abundance of the love of Jesus, the church is growing, and we are blessing our community in so many ways…… But what about next year.
Well, when I think about how to righteously look ahead, I think I am most inspired by Mary the mother of Jesus. I was preparing to preach a few weeks back, just before the new year, when I came across a passage by N.T. Wright in his commentary series, The New Testament for Everyone, on the first chapter of Luke. I love his description of Mary’s Song: “it’s the gospel before the gospel, a fierce bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem, thirty years before Calvary and Easter.” He goes on to explain that this young girl could not have imagined the cost of her journey. She is told that a sword will pierce her soul because of this baby boy that she is promised to deliver. When this little boy is but a toddler his presence will force her to become a refugee, when he is 12, she will face the anxiety of losing him for 3 days, when he is in his adulthood, she will think that he has lost his mind, and then in the end she will watch him bleed on the cross, and then grieve his death for three days before the resurrection. What a cost. Mary really has no idea where the journey will take her, what troubles she might face, and what God-given grace she will need for them.
When Mary is given the promise of Jesus, she has just one question. She is a poor, engaged, virgin girl who is to become pregnant, give birth to a little boy, and this boy will be the Savior of the world and his Kingdom will never end. Naturally, her one question is, “How?” The answer is simple but powerful: “’The Holy Spirit will come upon you, replied the angel, ‘and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’”
You see, Mary is a poor, young, unmarried, virgin. But the Holy Spirit empowers Mary to do and be more than she could ever do or be by herself, in order to fulfill God’s plan, purpose, and mission for her life. The Holy Spirit works within Mary, but the presence of God also “overshadows” her. God’s presence completely surrounds her! God is within Mary and all-around Mary! (Listen, you simply must run out and buy N.T. Wright’s commentary on Luke and just read it right through. Trust me!)
You see, Mary is the perfect example of what happens when God is at work, by grace, through us. God’s power from outside, and the Spirit within, results in things happening in our lives, for God’s plan and mission, that normally would not be possible. When Mary is told about the new thing that God is doing in her life, this new beginning, the chance to be the mother of the Messiah, though not yet aware of all this will involve, Mary says those words that inspire each and every one of us and all humanity in our response to God’s call: “Here I am, the Lord’s servant. Let it be as you have said.”
The promise of God’s presence within and all around. The opportunity to be right at the heart of his mission to bless the world. This drove Mary to a shout that was the gospel before the gospel.
So, here is my shout. I know that I cannot know all of the troubles that I might face this year and neither can you. But I do know that God is a promise keeper! God’s Spirit has been poured out on all flesh. That means you and me. We live in a world filled with God’s glory, every corner of Sofia and your community as well. I believe that God’s presence within us and God’s presence all around us will be more than enough to empower me and my family, you and yours, to do and be more than would ever be possible otherwise. All this because we get to be a part of God’s mission to bless all the people, all the nations, all the neighbors of the earth.
Whatever God’s plan, purpose, and mission is for my life this year, “Here I am, the Lord’s servant. Let it be as you have said.” This is my own fierce, confident, and joyful shout of victory before the victory! What about you? Do you have a shout? Do you have a song?
I can hardly wait to sit down next January to look back on the impossible all over again. We will be headed back to the states this summer to share about all that God has done in this past year. We have stories to tell! But I am beginning to believe, perhaps like Mary, that it is just the beginning. Happy New Year!
