Newsletter January 2014

As we begin the year 2014 the history student in me cannot help but look back a century to the year 1914 which was a pivotal year in world history and changed the course of Western civilization.

At the beginning of 1914 the Pax Britannica was just about a hundred years old.  Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was entering the 20^th year of what looked like a very long reign.  Kaiser Wilhelm II presided over a resurgent German Empire.  The sun never set on the British Empire.  Woodrow Wilson was in the second year of being only the second Democrat elected president since the American Civil War.  The world economy, technology, and optimism about human progress were growing, despite the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. 

And then shots were fired in Sarajevo, the guns of August boomed, the major powers all fell into a vicious war, and nothing was ever the same again.  Before the dust had settled on this whole chain of events (let us say in 1920), the Tsar and all his family were dead (including Anastasia), the Kaiser was in exile in the Netherlands and never returned to Germany not even for burial, and President Wilson was felled by a stroke as he over-worked himself in a futile attempt to get the U.S. to join the League of Nations so that the “war to end all wars” would remain just that.  And worst of all, the nightmare that was the communist experiment in Russia (of all places!) began, the Nazis were organizing in Germany which would lead to a war that made the first one pale by comparison, and poorly planned national borders were drawn in the old Ottoman Empire that trouble us to this very day.  But at the beginning of 1914 no one saw the magnitude of what was coming.

The year 2014 does not look like it will be nearly so pivotal as 1914.  But one never knows.  The future is always unknown, and many of the major events of human history have caught the human race quite unaware and unprepared.  Those who emerge to change the course of human events often come out of nowhere.  Time magazine chooses a “person of the year” annually in late December.  The person of the year for 2013 is Pope Francis whom most people outside of Argentina never heard of at the beginning of 2013.  Runner-up was Edward Snowden who toiled in obscurity at the beginning of the year.  And yet they were deemed the ones who made the biggest impact, for good or for ill, on the world this last year.

The Bible is full of reminders of the mystery of future events, from Isaiah 55:8 “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord” to James 4:13 “Come now, you who say ‘today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow” to Romans 11:34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?”

We may not know the future but, there are some parts of the mind of the Lord that have been revealed to us in the holy scriptures.  Here are a few thoughts to take into the new year.

1)  Matthew 28:20 “And lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.”   These are the words of Jesus as he ascended into heaven and the disciples wondered what in the world was next.  Jesus told them that they would not face the future alone.  And neither do we.

2) Matthew 6:34 “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”  These words were spoken by Jesus after asking his listeners to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air and God’s continual care for them.  God still cares for us day by day.

3) Isaiah 29:11 “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and nor for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  These words were spoken to the children of Israel feeling hopeless and powerless in exile to reassure them as they waited to return home.  The Lord knows his plans for us even if we cannot divine them right now.

4) Romans 8:28 “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”  This would be a cheap promise if it were not for the verses that precede it about the reality of “the sufferings of this present age” (v.18) and “our weakness” (v.26).   God will be working for good again in 2014.

So let us greet the new year with confidence in the God who is always with us, who calms our nerves, who has great plans for us, and who is working for good all the time.