Dream On

A new year is always kind of a cool thing.  It’s not as big to me as it used to be--it’s been years since I stayed up until midnight to welcome in the new year, for example--but it’s still kind of cool.  

I mentioned this in the children’s sermon this week, but a new year kind of reminds me of when the school year started, and you’d get these blank writing tablets.  Remember that?  I don’t know if kids get those any more--maybe they use electronic tablets now--but that blank writing tablet was always something I looked forward to.  It was kind of exciting.  I mean, I wasn’t jumping up and down and screaming--I wasn’t that much of a nerd, quite--but it still was kind of exciting.

See, a blank writing tablet held all kinds of possibilities.  I could take notes for school in it, of course, but I could also do all kinds of other things, things that were actually fun.  I could write stories.  I could write skits or music.  I could keep a diary in it.  I could keep track of baseball statistics in it.  There were all kinds of things I could do with that blank writing tablet.

When you think about it, a new year is kind of like that.  It’s got three hundred sixty-five blank pages in it.  We can write anything we want to on those pages.  We can do normal, responsible things, and we should do those things.  But we can also do fun things.  We can allow ourselves to dream.  We can use our creativity.  We can let our imaginations wander.  We can express our thoughts and feelings.  There are all kinds of things we can do with those blank three hundred sixty-five days that we call a year.

I hope you’ll do some of all of those things.  The message this week was about allowing ourselves to dream, to think about the wonderful things that could be, and then behaving as if we believed those things can actually happen.  That’s what I’d encourage us to do this year.  Think of some wonderful things that could be, and then act as if you believe they can happen.  Because if we all act as if we believe that wonderful things can happen, and if we ask God to help us make those wonderful things happen, and if God wills that those wonderful things will happen, then they will.  We, working with God, can make all kinds of wonderful, incredible things happen.  Because all things are possible with God.

All things are possible with God, and all things are possible in a new year.  Let’s believe that wonderful things will happen in 2017, let’s act in accordance with that belief, and let’s ask God to help us make those wonderful things happen.  If we do, then when I sit down a year from now to write a letter like this, we’re going to have a lot to celebrate!