From the Desk of Cheryl Hauer
Thinking this morning about the new year. I really sense a difference in the attitude of most people regarding the new year, this new year, 2025. It seems to me that since COVID-19, each new year has been greeted with a bit of trepidation…lots of prayers and wishful thinking but a healthy dose of I-am-afraid-things-might-get-worse. But this time, I sense genuine excitement for a new year filled with promise. And that’s how it should be. After all, God never changes, right? He is the same today as he was pre-covid when our Januarys were filled with expectation, confidence that this time we would follow through on all those resolutions, when we actually saw good in the world.
So, I spent some time meditating on the fact that his mercies really are new every morning, he really is our strength and our salvation, his love really is so great we cannot comprehend it, he promises he will never leave us or forsake us. And he always, really always, keeps his promises. As I was delighting in my contemplation of how God will reveal himself in the coming year, I heard his still, small voice whisper, “And what will you look like in 2025?” And what should pop up in my bible reading but Psalm 15 (ESV):
O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the LORD;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
So I started unpacking. Lord, who can enter your presence, who can abide with you in your holiness? After all, that is definitely what I want for this year and every year. But walk blamelessly? Here the Hebrew helps: wholesome, even healthful, upright, truthful, having integrity. I can shoot for that. And obviously, no gossip, no slandering others, respecting those around me. But taking up a reproach against my friend? Again, the Hebrew helps: no words or actions that would harm my friend’s reputation, that would bring disgrace or embarrassment to him or his.
The next line, however, stopped me in my tracks: he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. That’s exactly what I had been loving about the Lord! He is altogether trustworthy. He continues to keep every promise he has made, as he always has, even when it brought pain, humiliation, disgrace. Even when it cost him his life. But what about me? Is my word my bond? Do I view my promises, even the little ones sometimes flippantly made, as sacred commitments?
There was a time when this exercise would have been very discouraging as all I would have seen were my shortcomings, those places where I fell so short. But this time, I find myself excited. Yes, lots of work to do. But its his work, he is the one who leads me down paths of righteousness. Lord, You are the one who guides us with your counsel, who holds us by our right hands, who tells us when to turn to the right or to the left. You are the one who bought our freedom with your faithfulness. And you are the one who has given us 2025, 365 doses of fresh mercy, as you patiently make us into the people you want us to be. All we have to do is listen and obey. Even when it hurts.
Blessings and Shalom,
Issachar Community