New Year, New Choices

We stand at the beginning of another year. Its potential is unrevealed. What lies ahead for us? We can’t know for certain, but what we do know is who goes with us into the unknown, unrealized minutes that pass before us. 525,600 minutes of life in 2009. What do we do with those minutes? No one will probably dictate to us how we should spend the gift of time we’ve been given. Do we spend the time looking back to the past so that more and more minutes are wasted uncovering miseries or reliving old hurts? Or do we expend the gift of time God has given us looking towards our Lord as center of our lives and the giver of hope and peace?

One of our greatest gifts is our freedom of choice. We can choose either to let the circumstances of life overwhelm and overcome us or we can choose to seek God’s face and god’s will for our lives and to live in his presence. I pray that your 2009, with all of its potential joys, probable hurts, possible happiness, or prospective opportunities is filled with the wonder of a God who loves us, never leaves us, and always seeks us. I wrote the poem below several years ago, and I wanted to share it with you at the beginning of a new year. To me, it speaks about the choice we have to make and the fact that God never moves away. God is right here, and God is hoping that you’ll choose to reach out to him and allow him in. May your life be filled with the amazing brilliance of the light of God’s love! Receive him in 2009 and always!

“Spectrum”

The light shines brightly
Through the space underneath the door.
A beam filters through the keyhole
And is briefly covered as I peek inside.
What light! What color!
The light seems so brilliant,
So jubilant,
So vibrant,
So alive!
But it’s on the other side.
My heart longed to go through the door.
How my eyes yearned to feel the light, the joy.
How my ears pleaded to caress the softness
Of the brilliance.
In the midst of my longing
There was a knock at the door.
I turned the doorknob…
The door opened…
Flooding the room, colors illuminated the darkness.
He knocked; I answered.
I’ll never be in shadows again.
I didn’t know I was worthy enough
To open the door
And now I am filled with light.
Laugh, live, and celebrate God’s love,
Oliver
Love comes in all shades
Providing illumination for all in despair
Now the Light is in me.
What color!
What joy!