Please don’t ask for a blessed year 2018 until you’re done ending 2017 well. In this last week of the year I want to remind you that moving on to the next year will only be good after you did an honest review of this past year. Lot’s wife is a prime example of someone who is still haunted by the past. After the episode of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed she still cannot let go and turns back. The consequence is that she is stuck. She turns into a pillar of salt and can’t move anymore at all.
It maybe true that when one door closes, God opens another. But you may not be ready to embrace that change. You first need to finish mourning the loss of the first opportunity. Any change, any transition, needs a proper ending. And judging them as “good” or “bad”, as “negative” or “positive” is not the point. Change is change and transitions are transitions. When someone dies the process of preparing for and going through the funeral helps end things well. When a couple gets married the process of preparing for and going through the wedding helps end things well. Yes, a wedding is not just a new start but also an ending: your single life ends. It’s really a shame that on the occasion of a divorce a lot of people just go through legal battles and miss the opportunity to end things well by going through a blessing ceremony for this part of their lives.
Here is how to end things well: When Israel left the slave house of Egypt, they did not directly proceed to the promised land where milk and honey flow. But God had them roam the desert for two generations. When Jesus died on the cross he did not directly come back to life but was buried and stayed there for three days. There is a pause between the old and the new. And that pause is not just being antsy about what is to come, it is about the reflection of the past: The time in Egypt was an overall horror story for God’s people but in the desert they learned to remember and appreciate that there was more food than they have now. When Jesus was in his grave, the disciples learned to be the church without following Jesus like a guru.
Again, the point is to pause and not just write off experiences as “good” or “bad”, as “negative” or “positive”. If you lost a loved one in 2017 don’t let that be your only memory for this year. If your house got flooded, find another memory as well. If your 2017 is all great because the Astros won the World Series, find something that didn’t go perfect this year. Be grateful for what went well and mourn what didn’t. Only after you have taken your heart through an honest review of 2017 will God be able to reach it with a blessed year 2018.
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