It’s the end of the year 2006 and I say, “What’s the big deal!”

I have been here many times before and even though we hope for more—the end of the year really doesn’t mean that much anymore. One year ends and we are glad to see that happen. A new year begins and we are glad to see that happen.

When I was young, the new year’s eve was a time to party. We’d enter into the evening with such big expectations and leave with a feeling that maybe next year we’d have it together enough to make it really happen

If it wasn’t for calendars, we wouldn’t even have that sense of one year waning and another waxing.

But on a positive note, is is good to know there is an end to one year and a beginning to another: it gives us a sense of passage—that time really is moving forward. That we have lived and not just dreamed it all.

It’s kinda like that Twilight Zone episode where we see two people in a city that appears to be real, but is actually a scale model built by a giant on another planet. The couple have gone from door to door and not found anybody. It is only when they push over a fake tree with no roots do they realize that they are in the Twilight Zone. The show ends and the scene fades as we, the audience, see the little man and women, faces filled with shock, about to be picked up by a giant girl on another planet. How they got into her little playhouse, we will never know. We get the distinct feeling that as playthings, they have about reached the end of their functional existence.

I remember a movie I saw in college called the King of Hearts. It is a French film set in a small town in France near the end of World War I. As the German army retreats they booby-trap the whole town to explode. The locals flee and, left to their own devices, a gaggle of cheerful lunatics escape the asylum and take over the town—thoroughly confusing the lone Scottish soldier who has been dispatched to defuse the bomb.

It was a great move as I recall. The escapees don’t miss a beat as they realize that the whole town is theirs—nothing has changed except everything. Did they live in bliss forever or did the residents come back and set things right. I might have to get it from Netflix just to find out. My wife will be real happy about that I am sure. Subtitles and all.

On a more sober note, all stream-of-consciousness aside, I would really like to believe that 2007 has potential—that all the stuff we learned in 2006 will stick and we won’t have to go through it again—the painful stuff I mean.

Bob Dylan said, “What kind of price to we have to pay to get out of going through all this twice.”

Scripture tells me that, ”
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

So, believing that, even the bad stuff from this past year has had its positive effect according to God’s economy.

It’s like that old saying that if you don’t learn from your past you are destined to repeat it.

Let’s hope that 2007 will be the year that we find our place and begin to appreciate who we really are—all by ourselves—how we were created by God. Not as a reflection of what someone else thinks we are or by what kind of car we drive or the clothes we wear.

It’s cool having a nice car but if you need it to feel important and loved, you have missed the point.

I would also hope that I (we) can get out of my (our) inbred denominational thinking and really embrace God’s people instead of seeing them in whatever church they have chosen to attend. Or whether they do traditional, blended or contemporary praise and worship services. All that stuff is man-made and even though I have helped to create some of the strongholds that keep us apart, I repent and look forward to the day that we can truly live together—embracing our similarities and differences equally.

It’s only Saturday evening, December 30th, and my 15 or 20 minutes blogging is almost over. The African music is still playing in the background. The fire in the wood stove has gone out. It’s too early for bed. I’ve already played the fiddle.

What’s next? Any ideas?