How has 2014 been so far?
Hopefully each of us has had a chance to relax during the holiday period. As we get back into our routines, the child in the manger drops off our radar for another year.
Certainly the world has got back into its usual ways. Old war zones continue and new ones begin. Will the tenuous ceasefire in the Sudan work out? The situation in Syria goes from bad to worse. In the Central African Republic it looks like genocide may raise its ugly head as Christians mercilessly slaughter Muslims and vice versa. There are fears of more terrorist attacks at home and abroad; and in almost every country there are concerns about child abuse and domestic violence.
Will we have a Happy New Year? Perhaps, something has to change within us if we want to see improvement.
One religious leader, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, wrote in his message of the 1st January, “Let’s each make a determination to be a more sincere, compassionate, warm-hearted and non-violent human being”. Another, the Roman Catholic Pope Francis 1, in talking about the state of the world, asked the Vatican crowds, “What has happened in the hearts of men, in the heart of humanity? It is time to stop!! It is time to stop!”
Both leaders suggest that all of us – men and women everywhere – change how we are and how we think. It so happens that’s what the coming of Jesus was all about: so we could get a new heart and transform our minds.
Jesus actually.
Keep the child in the manger on your radar: it’s the only way forward for a happier new year.
(from James Henderson’s blog entry at "Because" - used with permission)