New Year's Day

A brand new year. Almost like the ultimate Monday. For people in ministry, Monday is a day where feelings of relief and celebration combine--relief that Sunday is past and celebration for what God did with His day.

New Years Day is a good day to assess. I need to slow down a minute. It is easy for me to get caught up in empty resolutions, but I am reminded of the cycle which comprises much of the Old Testament: God gives guidelines within the covenant relationship. God's people pick and choose as to which guidelines they will follow. God allows the consequences for poor choices to occur. God's people repent and cry for mercy. God allows a bruised people to understand that He never left them.

I could write Allen all over that cycle.

It seems like the Psalmist understood the problem with resolutions and instead focused on the faithfulness of the Lord:

Ps 33:3-5
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright;
And all His work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. (NASB)

I will sing a new song in response to the uprightness of His word. In response to His work, His justice and His righteousness.

As I sing my new song in 2010, I pray that my song is in response to not ahead of God.