Happy New Year! Although it’s starting to sound a bit obsolete as we are already into the fourth week of the year. It doesn’t take long for the joy, expectation and atmosphere of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” to fade. I estimate it takes about one week of busyness back at work and the holiday season seems a long distant memory, disappearing behind us like dust on a country road. All too soon it’s settled and gone as if none of it ever really happened. I began to wonder, what does “Happy New Year” actually mean? I hope you are happy, every moment, of every day, throughout the year? Maybe that’s what we mean by saying it but it’s not very realistic, life is never a journey of happiness, all the time. If it is for you maybe we could swap lives for a short period of time???

Lets be real, life has its intensely happy moments and there are seasons of great joy. I’ve spent most of my holidays having a great time with constant laughs shared with family and friends but now the challenges and realities of life loom high on the horizon and there is no avoiding them. Not all of those challenges are the encouraging, uplifting kind. So do we grit our teeth and bear it until the next holiday break when we can relax again and forget about the troubles of the world? I think there might be a better way, as Christians we can see life as an ongoing journey of fellowship with God. He is with us, by our side, sharing our happy times and our sad times, encouraging us when we’re down and giving us hope for the future and a constant awareness of His indescribable peace and presence.

When we experience life in this way, our sense of happiness and well-being becomes less dependent on our circumstances and more dependent upon our walk with God. So perhaps my New Year’s greeting to you should be, “May God’s Peace Be With You In 2010.” It sounds a little pious but I think it’s a more realistic description of what the Christians ongoing experience is like.

May God’s peace be with you!