December months have always proven to be a disconcerting season. Year on year, December repeatedly causes me to be sullen. It is not quite a joy; to see a year coming to a close. Closure is never easy. A survey of 2009 reveals only that small sprinkling of high points. It is sad, to have a year, marked more by gulleys and trenches rather than by peaks, and ones not quite soaring, to add.
The year is faster closing. The season forces a recount of how I have spent the year. The reality is that 2009 will soon be gone, and that nothing I can ever do will bring it around again. A truthful review always tinges me with regret. The opportunities lost and squandered. The gifted days, so casually wasted. There is no replay. The moments are either captured, or lost. The only surety now, that holds my focus, is that I would be called to account for them all, on Judgment Day. Then again, I know full well, in our youthfulness, we temper our shortcomings with promises to look into the “should haves” and “ought to’s” in the future. So we would watch the sun set on 2009. We await the first sunrise of 2010. Somewhere in between, perhaps, we would compose ourselves and make our resolutions. Our speckled regrets though sincere and real, are temporal. A tear or two may help soothe the conscience, but true sorrow is hard to find. Come year-end 2010, will I find myself in the same quandary? Such vessels of clay, we are. Still, the LORD would choose us, as His own.
For the 300 plus days gifted, we could reminisce the good times we have had; the parties, the holidays, the birthdays and the weddings. We have grown older by a year, accumulated providentially more knowledge, gained some experience and perchance wisdom. We celebrated our blessings. On the flip, we remember and mourn the loss of friends and loved ones. We would miss their voice, their presence, their touch, their very being. We yearned to party in the company of our bosom-friends. We wish that the times and distances that separate us would simply shrink or disappear. All in all, our mutual ardency is commendable. In all our gaiety, one could ponder; of our highs in 2009, how many were centered on the LORD? Does our dedication to friend and family overwhelm or pale in comparison with our accord for the Friend, our Lord. The writing on the plaque is more likely to be the truism; He was the silent Listener, the unseen and overlooked Guest, and a wall-flowered Visitor. Our garish inconsistency, of purportedly wanting to spend an eternity with Him, but not quite, as evidenced in the days of 2009 does not smite us as appalling or leave us privately aghast. In our busyness and the prime of our youth, who will fault a forgetfulness of the LORD? If not for His faithfulness, His love. And His grace that causes Him to endure our despise of Him. How true it is; that the LORD has never dealt with us, according to the measure of our sin.
One would also ill imagine that our daily walk with the Master in 2009, would not have had a more profound and significant influence over our lives. It is impossible; that the power of the Holy Counselor is inadequate to effect sanctification in those who closely listen to His Word. This begs several questions. Professions have a knack for coming around to haunt and heckle us, always. I guess, for me, they are most persistent in the months of December. It is comforting then to remember, and rest in the provision of our Lord’s righteousness; a thing we do not cleave to closely.
Would it not be good then, to close 2009, together, in repentance, but with much thanksgiving and praise, for the One who could, and would, love us still?
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecc 12:1)
God bless.
The year is faster closing. The season forces a recount of how I have spent the year. The reality is that 2009 will soon be gone, and that nothing I can ever do will bring it around again. A truthful review always tinges me with regret. The opportunities lost and squandered. The gifted days, so casually wasted. There is no replay. The moments are either captured, or lost. The only surety now, that holds my focus, is that I would be called to account for them all, on Judgment Day. Then again, I know full well, in our youthfulness, we temper our shortcomings with promises to look into the “should haves” and “ought to’s” in the future. So we would watch the sun set on 2009. We await the first sunrise of 2010. Somewhere in between, perhaps, we would compose ourselves and make our resolutions. Our speckled regrets though sincere and real, are temporal. A tear or two may help soothe the conscience, but true sorrow is hard to find. Come year-end 2010, will I find myself in the same quandary? Such vessels of clay, we are. Still, the LORD would choose us, as His own.
For the 300 plus days gifted, we could reminisce the good times we have had; the parties, the holidays, the birthdays and the weddings. We have grown older by a year, accumulated providentially more knowledge, gained some experience and perchance wisdom. We celebrated our blessings. On the flip, we remember and mourn the loss of friends and loved ones. We would miss their voice, their presence, their touch, their very being. We yearned to party in the company of our bosom-friends. We wish that the times and distances that separate us would simply shrink or disappear. All in all, our mutual ardency is commendable. In all our gaiety, one could ponder; of our highs in 2009, how many were centered on the LORD? Does our dedication to friend and family overwhelm or pale in comparison with our accord for the Friend, our Lord. The writing on the plaque is more likely to be the truism; He was the silent Listener, the unseen and overlooked Guest, and a wall-flowered Visitor. Our garish inconsistency, of purportedly wanting to spend an eternity with Him, but not quite, as evidenced in the days of 2009 does not smite us as appalling or leave us privately aghast. In our busyness and the prime of our youth, who will fault a forgetfulness of the LORD? If not for His faithfulness, His love. And His grace that causes Him to endure our despise of Him. How true it is; that the LORD has never dealt with us, according to the measure of our sin.
One would also ill imagine that our daily walk with the Master in 2009, would not have had a more profound and significant influence over our lives. It is impossible; that the power of the Holy Counselor is inadequate to effect sanctification in those who closely listen to His Word. This begs several questions. Professions have a knack for coming around to haunt and heckle us, always. I guess, for me, they are most persistent in the months of December. It is comforting then to remember, and rest in the provision of our Lord’s righteousness; a thing we do not cleave to closely.
Would it not be good then, to close 2009, together, in repentance, but with much thanksgiving and praise, for the One who could, and would, love us still?
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecc 12:1)
God bless.
/ckh
