Clergy from left, Pastor Mary Ann Hill, Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired; Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan and Pastor Deb Church. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com
By Pastor Nicolé Raddu Ferry
Bethlehem Lutheran Church
Happy New Year, dear community of Los Alamos and beyond. So, have you grown weary with the question: How is that New Year’s resolution going? Have you kept all the resolutions you set out for the year ahead? You know the reality: Every year, millions of people set New Year’s resolutions – and many give up on them within the first week. Did you know the fun fact that the Babylonians made the first New Year’s resolutions about 4,000 years ago? It was not on the first of January but in mid-March, when they celebrated a 12-day festival called Akitu during the spring harvest of barley. Around 48% of us want to exercise more, making it the most popular New Year’s resolution. Health-related resolutions cover the top 3 resolutions. Only 9% of people see their resolutions through until succession. Most of you are probably not surprised with these stats, and yet I wonder: What would it look like if we all moved our resolutions from a harsh “I must do this” list to a moment of possibility?
“Kindness, Kindness, Kindness. I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I am praying for courage.” ~Susan Sontag
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws but for potential.” ~Ellen Goodman
As I write this article, we are in the 11th day of Christmas, and Epiphany is on the horizon (January 6th for some of us, January 19th for others). Epiphany is one of the three principal and oldest festival days of the Christian church, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. The Magi, or the three Kings, were following a star, looking for the amazing potential of a new king (a Messiah) who would change the world as they understood it.
“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi (astrologers) from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.’” Matthew 2:1-2.
The Magi were looking for potential. They were looking for possibilities. What if, in this new year, we look for potential and possibilities? What if we are grateful for the little joys, the little miracles we see each day? Friends, we live in a community that is so beautiful! Let’s look up and look out. What if we resolve to be a little kinder to those who make our lives work in the service industry? They are working hard for all of us. What if we take no hatred into the New Year? Let us remember that hatred is the poison we consume while expecting the other to die. What if we celebrate doing our best with what we have at the time we are in, and leave perfectionism in 2023?
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and stream sin the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19
Happy New Year everyone. May you have a blessed year ahead filled with glimpses of what is possible and where we see potential. Amen and amen.
Editor’s note: ‘All Shall Be Well’ is a column written by local women clergy including ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com); Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (pastornicole@bethluth.com); Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe (rev.lynn@holyfaithchurchsf.org); Pastor Deb Church, White Rock Presbyterian Church (pastor@wrpchurch.com) and Pastor Mary Ann Hill, Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church (momaryannhill@gmail.com).
