Welcome to 2020.
Are you ready? Are you excited? Do you have it all planned? Or maybe the idea of a blank calendar is a bit intimidating?
I think for all of us there is an awareness that we can’t fully know what’s hiding in the shadows of the months to come.
Our inability to foresee prompts a reminder that we can trust.
And I invite you, as I do, to treasure in your heart Proverbs 3:5-6.
‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
‘In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.’
Well, my calendar is already well populated. Geographically, I know where I’m going to be!
When important meetings are to happen, they’re already scheduled.
I even know when I’m going to get to see family and have holidays.
Yet still I have to trust, and I am literally asking God to make my paths straight.
Maybe you, like me, are concerned about the complexity of life or the volatility of our world and its stability.
These things occupy my thinking every day as I glimpse into this global village where we live.
But I get to choose a path of trust and sheltering in God’s plan instead of a path of anxiety.
I confess I often find myself humming the song ‘He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands’.
I think I do that because I value the words of Philippians 4:5.
‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.’
I remain steadfast in my conviction that God continues to bless The Salvation Army, and that as long as we remain faithful, and live out an active, obedient faith, he will be with us.
In this new year, I believe anything is possible because God is doing a new thing among us.
It is with that in mind that I ask that we continue to respond to the Call to Mission – to be ready, to be engaged, to take responsibility.
I want to encourage the international Salvation Army to be vigilant, available in our communities, advocates for those in need.
And, above all, to share the generous grace of God.
Although the challenge is personal, we can link arms together as one Salvation Army, and I believe we can impact the world for good in 2020.
May God help us.
May God bless us.
And, God, keep us faithful.
May he bless you in this new year and throughout all the months that come.
Amen.