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Friends United Meeting |
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January/February 2002
Commitments
By Retha McCutchen
What commitments did you make for 2002? A New Year is a good time to consider new beginnings. We all experience them—birth and death, marriage and divorce. Every change in life offers the opportunity to create a new beginning. The events of September 11 and following call each of us to deeply seek our personal new beginnings. Today is the day to begin.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
—Isaiah 43:18
God promises to forget our past—removing it as far as east is from west. What happened to you or through you in the past is forgiven/forgotten. God is offering each one of us an open door to reach out and touch a portion of the world in Jesus' name.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do
you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
—Isaiah 43:19
We are people shaped by our past. These experiences can be used to deepen
our lives, adding strength, or they have the potential to take from our
lives leaving us bitter and/or handicapped. Forgetting what is behind
and moving forward is not an easy task. God rarely removes the consequences
of past sin—our own or what others have done to us!! We walk in trust.
God forgives and brings inner peace;
God helps us live within the circumstances of our lives.
Out of the healing process of our brokenness, the Spirit brings hope. The experience of others is what generally speaks to me, not some pat answer of how it "ought" to be or how a Christian "ought" to feel or act in a given circumstance.
New beginnings most often move us outside our comfort zone. Ask yourself, "What new thing is opening before me?" I challenge you. Do not sit back and wait for opportunities to drop in your lap. Actively seek God's leading and then follow that direction.
Your leading might mean taking a hot meal to a family with illness, or...
It might mean playing golf or fishing with a seeking acquaintance, or...
It might mean inviting a friend to a youth activity, or...
It might even mean sharing your faith in Christ with another.
And yes, it might be a call to work cross-culturally.
But it always means living life with integrity, treating people with dignity and compassion. God's direction will mean incorporating the principles expressed in Scripture into our lives, to the extent that the fruits of the Spirit are evident—love, joy, peace, patience—the uncomfortable attributes list!
The church is people with God's Spirit living within them. I am convinced that God is calling Friends United Meeting Quakers to commitment and obedience. That will look different for each individual; our response is individual. Let's be obedient!
May God give you a challenging year!
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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