Actually, it’s the beginning, but you and I don’t need another rant about how 2020 was the most horrible year ever so the next one has to be better.
The calendar has no agency. The past year didn’t do anything to us, and whatever was happening yesterday will continue, unless we do something about it.
And there’s the key – unless we do something about it.
The culture doesn’t have to determine our attitude. As the world around us pokes and prods and tries to convince us we’re it’s victims, that we must react to its circumstances, The Apostle Paul says we can make a different choice.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
He’s talking, I think, about slavery to the culture. He’s talking about slavery to the political ideologies and religious structures and nationalistic convictions so pervasive that we take them for granted. He’s talking about slavery to winning and demanding our rights.
He’s talking about slavery to culture, to the rules and expectations and circumstances that wrap us like a blanket of fog from which there’s no escape.
Jesus set us free from that sort of slavery. We’re free, instead, to choose gratitude, service, and sacrifice.
We’re free to turn our efforts toward God’s values of worldly justice for the oppressed, the poor, and the marginalized.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
At the FREEDOM TOUR we’re anticipating a new year filled with opportunities to seek justice for the kids at the HOME OF HOPE. We’re excited about new possibilities to live out and share the freedom we have as followers of Jesus.
We hope you’ll join us. Stay tuned for all the new developments.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!