The Sunday Sermonette New Year’s Eve Dec. 31, 2023.

     As you know, the Olympic Class Liners, especially the Olympic and her ill-fated sister, Titanic, have fascinated me since childhood. In the Olympic’s 1st Class Smoking Room, a painting, “The Approach of the New World,” hung above the fireplace. I’ve often wondered how many people studied that painting and pondered what was in store for them in the New World across the pond in America. Are you pondering what the new year will bring on this New Year’s Eve as you cross the pond into the days, weeks, and months that lie ahead?

     We live in trying, uncertain times. And because we do, it’s easy to lose hope, but in the New Year, please remember that hope springs eternal. We should always remember that uncertainty and the afflictions that Life throws our way, both physical and mental, can make or break us. But these afflictions can also lead to endurance, which leads to character, which leads to hope, and hope always triumphs!

     Uncertain times also undermine our sense of security. We treasure it even though we know that safety in this Life carries no guarantees—possessions can be destroyed, beauty and youth fade, relationships can be broken, and death is inevitable. Real security must be found beyond this Life. Only when it rests on God and his unchanging nature can we face the uncertainty that the New Year will surely bring. 

     The New Year will be filled with challenges, too. Try to turn them into opportunities. To do so, persevere with a relentless drive to survive, to move forward, not backward, to do what is right, and to do so with humility in the face of those trials. We must trust God to weave Life’s difficulties into opportunities, even though we may not understand His overall pattern. The rewards for doing right are sometimes delayed, but they will come, nurtured by God himself.

     What can we do to assure our rewards in Heaven? To love, not hate. To forgive those who have hurt us so that we, too, can be forgiven by our Father in Heaven. To never allow anger to fester and thus rule our hearts. To sow peace, not war. To be the answer and not the problem. To do what is just and upright, even in a world that wallows in all that is wrong.

     Another year of Sunday Sermonettes has come to an end. And thus, we began anew. Here’s wishing you, my dear family and Facebook friends, a Happy, Safe, and Prosperous New Year! May Father God richly bless each life with His love and mercy.

     Ponder this and go forth.