The Hope of January 2

January 2, 2019 

I divide my adult life into three separate time periods.  There were the B.C. years, the years before Christ came into my life.  I didn’t know that I was lost, and frankly, didn’t much care.  The second period is the time after I was saved, but still working in a career that I hated, hoping and praying that God had something else for me someday, somewhere. That was a period of turmoil, as I tried to discern what God wanted to do with me since the time He graciously saved me.  Then there is the current period where God, and the believers at Grace Redeemer Community Church have called me as their pastor.  I believe that I am exactly where God wants me to be.  My salvation and my passion for His word have finally intersected.  I am richly blessed.

For the first period of my adult life as an unbeliever, January 2 was the most depressing day of the whole year.  The fun and excitement of Christmas was over.  The New Year’s Eve party was past.  The whole slate of New Years’ day of college football games had been played.  January 2 meant back to work; another year of a job I didn’t want to do; nothing to look forward to; no hope.  I battled depression each year although I didn’t know to call it that then.  After I was saved, January 2 was still a very depressing day, but it was joined by another equally and perhaps even more depressing day.  Our family traveled to a Christian camp in New Hampshire called Camp Spofford for July 4 week for about 15 years in a row.  We were around other Christians, heard great music and inspiring messages and we left fired up to serve the Lord.  But the Monday after that week was over was always the hardest Monday of the year for me.  It took every fiber of my being to get up and go back to work that was so unfulfilling in every way.  Again, nothing to look forward to, no hope.

January 2 and the Monday after Camp Spofford; the two most depressing days of the year.  I prayed that God would make a way so that I could enter the ministry.  God put it on my heart to go to seminary.  Molly agreed to sell our house that had been in her family for 100 years.  We listed the house expecting a quick sale, but it wasn’t until nearly two years later that we finally sold it and moved to Dallas.  I completed seminary as quickly as I could, and then waited for two and a half more years before I was finally called to GRCC.  More depressing January 2’s and first Mondays after Camp Spofford.

This is now my second January 2 as pastor of GRCC.  I have never been happier or more fulfilled in my entire life.  I’m not saying you can’t do the Lord’s work in a secular job.  Of course you can, but that’s not the point of this devotional. The first point of this devotional is that God redeemed the time it took while He was working out my future.  While I waited for our house in New Jersey to sell, and while I waited for a church to call me as its pastor, I wondered over and over again, “God, what are you doing? What are you waiting for?”  Now on this side of it, I can see that God knew that it would have been very traumatic if we had moved so quickly.  I can also see that God wanted me at GRCC, but that the time was not yet right when I graduated from seminary.  I still had much to learn that they don’t teach in seminary.  I had hard lessons to learn about my own inadequacy, self-dependence and lack of humility.  It would take a lot of space to recount all that God allowed during my time of preparation.

The second point of this devotional is that no matter what your circumstances, no matter what you may be facing in 2019, no matter where you find yourself this January 2, we serve a God who is sovereign; who is bigger and more powerful than your seemingly hopeless situation, whether it be illness, a dead end job, financial struggles, family problems, broken relationships, you name it.  On January 2, we should not be hopeless or depressed because the Christmas season is past.  There is everything to look forward to!  God has graced each of us with another year to know Him better, to do His will, and to lead others to Him.  Some of us may even hear Him say the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, this year.  That’s not meant to be depressing.  That’s the most glorious thing we will ever hear.  I pray that this January 2, 2019 is a time of great hope for you as it is for me, that God will give you a new purpose, a new passion, a new reason to be excited about life.  That’s my new found hope on January 2!  Ps. 62:5-6: “My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.”