A new year…2010. A new word…a new idea…a new face…a new friend…what all of these and more have in common is that “new” implies change. It could be change for the better…or for the worse. We never know until it happens. Life without change is impossible, for we know that the only things that do not change are things that are dead. And even they change. Change is inevitable. Change is not always wise, or thought-out however. Change for change sake is never good.

Some years ago the world’s leading soft drink company decided to introduce a new product and a new logo. Both failed miserably. It was the “New Coke.” New taste, new look. Consumers rebelled and both were eventually shelved forever. Back to Classic Coke.

Pepsi decided to make a “Clear Pepsi,” same great taste – but crystal clear instead of the familiar brown! Bad move. Flopped almost immediately. Deep held tastes and habits die hard. Again consumers rebelled and rejected this “change for change sake”

We are after all, for the most part, creatures of habit. Some change is good. Technology has miniaturized computer memory to the point of being almost ridiculous. We can carry in our pocket a mini flash drive with more memory than a roomful of IBM computers combined did in the 1960’s. We can store thousands of photos on a chip the size of our thumbnail.

Change can be very good. In fact life saving. We have machines that scan our bodies to reveal tumors and other things that threaten our very lives. That’s good change. A new year has begun as you read these lines. Has anything changed in your life? What? And how? What is the passage of time really? What is change?

As we all get used to writing 2010 on our checks and correspondence let us also reflect on the now. The only thing we really have. Ultimately change is just a word. And 2010 just another number. Time is merely an abstraction, a way to divide the moments of the day so they can be recorded. Change is the way we name things that happen to us.

Because we remember and talk about what has been…and dream about the future, we really live our lives between already and not yet.

All we really have is the moment at hand. It is in that moment that we live, breath, make decisions, experience change and have our being. It is the moment that God has given us. That moment is the miracle we call now.
Living that moment fully means to be aware of where you have been so you can know where you are going. An old Russian proverb says, “He who dwells on the past loses an eye, but he who forgets the past loses both eyes.”
May your life be graced with the sure knowledge that God is with you all the time, every day, every hour, every moment, this moment…right now! For truly…that is all you have…use it wisely!

May every moment of 2010 be a miracle of blessing to you and your family!

Pastor Janis, Aina and our girls.