As we glide into port on this ultimate day of 2022, it is quite possible that our souls, like the hulls of ships, have gotten heavily barnacled, and need to be freed up. A quick dip into this topic explains that these tiny crustaceans attach themselves by secreting a type of cement which is one of the strongest glues known to man. When they attach themselves to a boat hull it is known as biofouling and the removal process is neither easy nor fun. When ‘life barnacles’ attach themselves to us we might call that soul-fouling and their removal is, likewise, neither a fun nor easy process. But we want to be able to sail into the New Year sans accumulated impediments, able to respond to Jesus’ invitation: “Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Sail with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace-sailing” (my freewheeling interpretation here sounds to me like this invitation includes Jesus cleaning off all infestation from our souls for a fresh start).
Tomorrow is the iconic day for a sweeping clean of the slate, putting up new calendars, starting a fresh new journal, maybe with a new pen received as a gift for Christmas, a new day-planner, a day for looking ahead, planning, organizing, trying to get used to writing ‘2023.’ Great! But not all things from this year, be they good or bad, end at midnight tonight. So, our big question is borrowed from Francis Schaeffer’s 1976 book titled, How Should We Then Live? Moving into this next set of twelve months, what is a God-honoring outlook on our society, a Kingdom-aware approach to the realities of life in our culture, a positivity that invites the world to come fall in love with our Jesus, the Messiah, a heart conviction that helps us navigate our world with minimal incrustation? Could we dare to live hopefully, peacefully, joyfully, lovingly? If so, how might that happen? (I invite you to ponder the words to Andrew Peterson’s ‘Is He Worthy?’) We’ll be looking at Scripture tomorrow, the Eighth Day of Christmas, that reminds us of what is, right now, ours in Jesus. Spoiler alert: The Gift goes on! See y’all then, 10 AM, 3 PM, 4 PM. PD
