Try It

Well, it’s the new year.  I suppose that I should be happy, happy, happy that the old year has been swept away and the prospects of a new year loom fresh and unsullied by the world…yet.  But I’ve been through enough new years in my life that I know the new will be mostly a repeat of the old, and that not much will really change regarding world peace, politics, or the human condition.

I guess we should always carry the banner of hope that THIS election year will be about the issues instead of insanities…that THIS year we will find the ultimate answer to the Jewish/Arab problems in the Middle East…that THIS year we will make peace with Isis and they with us...that THIS year Kansas will win the Big 12 football championship…that THIS year, well, you get the picture.

I am always amused at some of my Facebook friends who complain about their lot in life, but never seem to actually DO anything to change that.  They hate how they look, what they weigh, who they have a relationship with, where they live, or what they do for a living.  They have big ideas, big plans, and big dreams of change, and never seem to get started on them.  I think they enjoy complaining more than they hate all of the other.

I’ve been there, though.  I can relate.  It’s not easy to get out of the rut of life, even when that rut is less than comfortable.  There is a certain comfort in the uncomfortable.   There is a certain security in the known.  There is a certain relief in the torment.

I don’t know about you, but I’m more and more convinced that the human race is just about the most inconsistent, incompetent, and erratic kind of life form that ever has been or is.  We lack judgment.  We persist in tormenting ourselves.  We know what we need to do to get out of the hole we’ve dug, but we stubbornly refuse the offer of grace and salvation from ourselves.  Shall I say it?  We are idiots all!!

So, what are your big ideas and plans for the coming year?  And how many of those big ideas and plans in years past have you made and not seen come to fruition?  What do you plan to do differently this year than you’ve done in years past to make that outcome different this year?

Or are you finished with the big ideas?  You no longer make any plans.  You’ve just given up and given in on life as it is, and you want to just make it through another year relatively unscathed.

Let me offer you an alternative.  You’ve tried everything else…why not try Jesus Christ?  Test him.  Challenge him.  Dare him.  Put him on the front burner.  Let him have your life.  Give him your all.  What have you got to lose except the despair and hopelessness that you’ve known up to now?  Try it…I think you’ll like it.