Happy New Year! Now we are in 2004. Will it be a happy year? The beginning of a new year is filled with hopes, but sometimes also with fears. Will good or bad things happen to us? Will we rejoice over success in our jobs, over the birth of a child or grandchild, or over the recovery from a disease that has kept us down for so long? Or will we be depressed, because things do not seem to go well, professionally or personally, or because that disease does not seem to get any better? How about the big scale? How about our extended family, our hometown, the state, the nation, the world? How will the economy develop this year? Will our jobs be safe? How will the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan develop? Will our troops come home soon? Do we have to fear further terrorist attacks around the world, also here at home?

It seems that the beginning of a new year is the appropriate time to ask these questions. But why is that so? Is January 1 not just another number on our calendar, a calendar that is not even shared around the world? Why should things become different, for better or for worse, just because we now live in a year with a different number? Many people make plans for a new year, like giving up smoking, eating less, or other things, all too often just to discover that the new year does not help them to achieve their goal.

Things move, things develop, nothing is standing still forever. “Panta rhei everything flows,” said the Greek philosopher Heraklit. It is to some degree up to us in what direction things develop. The choices we make influence how the story develops. We can make good or bad choices, gifted by God with free will. But our free will has limits – God is still in control. Voluntarily we surrender our free will when we pray: “Your will be done.” We trust that God knows what is best, better than we ourselves could ever know with our limited access to information and the truth about things. Our image of things is just how we perceive them, but God sees things as they really are.

It is not in our power to make all things new, not on the first day of a new year, and not ever. This is God’s work. He makes all things new. We know that, because He said so (see above). Therefore, if you want to make a new start in your life, whatever it may be, do two things: first, bring the matter before the Lord in prayer, and ask the Lord to help you. But second, also say: “Your will be done, Lord, not mine.” Trust in the Lord that all will ultimately work out to the best for all and for His greater glory. And although the first of January may help us to start anew, we can do that on other days as well. With Christ, a new beginning is possible every day of our lives. If you feel you have to make something right with God, tell Him right away. If you feel the need to audibly hear that you are forgiven, make an appointment for confession right away. Do not wait for a special occasion. Christ does not want you to walk through your life burdened. He and only He can give us the true rest for our souls, a peace that the world cannot give. Only He can say to us: “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Thanks be to God!

Vicar Jens