|
Happy New Year! Or have I passed the date that this is still appropriate?
2025! A new year, a time for starting new things and planning the forthcoming year. Are we still able to hang onto the Advent theme of “Hush the noise”, or have our calendars and life overtaken us again?
In contrast, our first service together in 2025 has been grounded in the annual Methodist Covenant Service. An invitation for us to renew our covenant relationship with God. It is a reminder of God’s constant faithfulness enfolding us with generous love, wherever we find ourselves in life. And as individuals, we respond together, beginning with: “I am no longer my own but Yours, Your will, not mine, be done in all things”.
I must admit, it is a piece of liturgy that stops me in my tracks. I wonder if it is the same for you?
It has a profound effect on my faith and the way I live my life, as I realise that to live from one covenant service to the next, requires a total trust and reliance on God wherever life takes me, and necessitates a response from me. To help me with this, I am reminded of four things.
The lyrics of Charlotte Elliot’s hymn “Just as I am” helps me to explore my humanity in the face of all that God gives through Jesus, and my response is “O lamb of God, I come!”.
The last verse of the carol “In the bleak midwinter” provides an answer to the question – what part of me does God want…. “What can I give, poor as I am?.... yet what I can I give [God]– give my heart.”
In January, I was blessed to be at Andy Eyre’s induction as the new Baptist minister at Wotton’s Baptist church. At the service, his wife Ellie reminded us of the catalyst to the feeding of five thousand people who had come to listen to Jesus. A boy offered all that he had, and Jesus did the rest.
Finally, I am reminded of a story of an improbable relationship. An elephant and a mouse were friends and hung out together. One day they crossed a wooden bridge causing it to shake and sway. After they were across, the mouse impressed by their ability to make such an impact, said to the elephant, “Together, We really shook that bridge!”
It is easy to think that any relationship between us and God is improbable. But we know that we can have a very real relationship with God.
And so, as we begin this new year, wherever it takes us and whatever it offers us, let us hold fast to the promises we made in the Covenant Service.
For us to come to God, to give our heart to God and to offer what we have in our hands to serve God as and where God chooses.
Throughout 2025, I look forward to the testimonies of “bridges being shaken” as we hang out and walk with God!
2025! A new year, a time for starting new things and planning the forthcoming year. Are we still able to hang onto the Advent theme of “Hush the noise”, or have our calendars and life overtaken us again?
In contrast, our first service together in 2025 has been grounded in the annual Methodist Covenant Service. An invitation for us to renew our covenant relationship with God. It is a reminder of God’s constant faithfulness enfolding us with generous love, wherever we find ourselves in life. And as individuals, we respond together, beginning with: “I am no longer my own but Yours, Your will, not mine, be done in all things”.
I must admit, it is a piece of liturgy that stops me in my tracks. I wonder if it is the same for you?
It has a profound effect on my faith and the way I live my life, as I realise that to live from one covenant service to the next, requires a total trust and reliance on God wherever life takes me, and necessitates a response from me. To help me with this, I am reminded of four things.
The lyrics of Charlotte Elliot’s hymn “Just as I am” helps me to explore my humanity in the face of all that God gives through Jesus, and my response is “O lamb of God, I come!”.
The last verse of the carol “In the bleak midwinter” provides an answer to the question – what part of me does God want…. “What can I give, poor as I am?.... yet what I can I give [God]– give my heart.”
In January, I was blessed to be at Andy Eyre’s induction as the new Baptist minister at Wotton’s Baptist church. At the service, his wife Ellie reminded us of the catalyst to the feeding of five thousand people who had come to listen to Jesus. A boy offered all that he had, and Jesus did the rest.
Finally, I am reminded of a story of an improbable relationship. An elephant and a mouse were friends and hung out together. One day they crossed a wooden bridge causing it to shake and sway. After they were across, the mouse impressed by their ability to make such an impact, said to the elephant, “Together, We really shook that bridge!”
It is easy to think that any relationship between us and God is improbable. But we know that we can have a very real relationship with God.
And so, as we begin this new year, wherever it takes us and whatever it offers us, let us hold fast to the promises we made in the Covenant Service.
For us to come to God, to give our heart to God and to offer what we have in our hands to serve God as and where God chooses.
Throughout 2025, I look forward to the testimonies of “bridges being shaken” as we hang out and walk with God!
