A New Month

Hello Emmanuel,

It’s a new month.

I normally like to say ‘it’s a new day’.  That is, what happened yesterday is over.  What will happen today has yet to be done.  Forget what happened the day before and look to what can be.  It’s a way to get past a bad day and hope for a good day.  However, what happens when you get a string of bad days?  What happens when taking it day by day doesn’t seem to be working?

It’s a new month.

I know that optimism doesn’t always come easy.  Negative experiences are imprinted on our brain.  When we have enough imprints, we start to expect more negative experiences.  Before you know it, you become that grumpy old person that you didn’t like when you were a kid (a kid, by the way, that thought the world was a fun, happy place).

Case in point, tomorrow we get to vote.  It is well documented that the common Joe is frustrated with our political system.  I won’t go into all the details here because… well…. I don’t want to remind us of our imprinted negative experiences.  But how do you approach the polls?  Are you the grumpy old person or the kid who is looking for the new day… or the new month?

Hanging onto hope, be it in the political world or otherwise, can be a daunting task.  So how do you become one of those odd people that stubbornly hold on to optimism even in the face of adversity?  Well, let me introduce you to Jesus.  He gives us every reason to be optimistic because, inevitably, in the end, life wins.  Death loses.

Over the next couple of Sundays I’m going to risk bring Jesus into the political realm.  No, I don’t have a death sentence.  I am going to be openly optimistic about the hope that Christ gives us when we find ourselves in a grumpy world.  And let me start my boldness by suggesting that the political part of our culture is a grumpy world.  Don’t believe me?  Watch any news network and observe money being made on grumpiness.  No one ever seems to look forward to having a guest looking for a new day (though that is often a phrase that is passed around), only one who is lamenting the current day or complaining about yesterday.  Money isn’t made on optimism.  Even the Christian-based news media struggles with this reality.

So come worship with us.  I won’t promise that I will be optimistic throughout Sunday morning, but I promise that Christ’s message will be.  It’s the real reason I keep showing up to work.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe