HAPPY NEW YEAR

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

I know I just used the above Scripture as my verse for the posting entitled, “The Most Wonderful Time?” but it kind of fits this one also.  (I usually post entries on this blog on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but I’m going to post this now on Monday instead of Tuesday.)

I’m writing this around 6 in the morning on January 1.  I actually DID stay up to “see the new year in” and I went to bed around 12:30.  I’m sick this morning- no it isn’t a hangover; I don’t drink alcoholic beverages at all- I’ve had a cold since Wednesday of last week and this morning my bodily symptoms have been moderate chest congestion with some coughing, and using the bathroom far more times than I’d care to admit.  The Assemblies of God believes in Divine Healing.  No, we’re not weirdoes who don’t go to the doctor or anything like that- in fact my daughter is training to be a nurse at one of our colleges.  But there DOES tend to be the feeling in SOME Assemblies of God and Pentecostal circles that if you’re REALLY close to God you’ll seldom if ever get sick.  Thus, emotionally, when I do get sick a part of me tends to feel like a really lousy Christian and a failure, even though my brain tells me such thinking is profoundly stupid and illogical!  Anyway, I feel humble and vulnerable and a little less spiritual admitting I’m sick, but I’m sick.  I really feel “lousy” today.  And, so I’m just sitting here “typing” at the computer and reflecting on New Year’s Days of the past.

Boy, they’ve been many and varied!  I actually remember New Year's Day of 1961 pretty well.  That year I was six-years-old and in the first grade.  Baby Boomers will remember “Captain Bob” who had a children’s and young people’s program on channel 5 Boston which featured Captain Bob (or whatever is real name was) doing all kinds of artwork and sketching.   He sketched a big “1961” on his pad, and turned it over...it still said “1961”!  I thought that was very cool and I was writing “1961” on drawing paper and turning my 1961s over and over that day!  

I remember New Year’s Day 1978.  It was a Sunday.  At the Sunday night service of the old Walpole Assembly of God I preached my first official sermon.  I was 23 at the time, and I was home on Christmas break from Central Bible Collegein Missouri.  At that age I tended to be shy and awkward one-on-one and I tended to be someone who was NOT seen as a leader type.  I think some people had some real doubts about me becoming a minister, but I that first sermon was almost as good as the sermons I give today.  God has blessed me with strong public speaking ability, and God anointed that sermon.  At least one person admitted to being quite positively surprised by how good my sermon was; and for a young man who DIDN’T feel very confident or like a leader-type, that did a lot to build confidence in me.  

I have sad memories of New Year’s Day 1980.  My alcoholic brother who was two years younger than me “had it out” with my father that day.  There was as much yelling and as many “F Bombs” as you could imagine.  It was a terrible day for my very emotional mother who struggled with depression.  It was not a great way to begin the 1980s.  Incidentally, Eddie died of natural causes in 1983.

I also remember New Year’s Day 1990.  We spent December 31, 1989 and January 1, 1990 at our friends’ home in New Hampshire.  When the clock struck midnight to begin 1990 we were watching a video of the Tom Hanks movie “Big”.  I really liked that movie, but I was very surprised and disappointed that it contained at least one “F Bomb”.

My first official day as Pastor of First Assembly of God of Framingham was January 1, 1987.  If my memory serves me correctly, we did not actually MOVE into Framingham until January 3 and I conducted my first service as Pastor on January 4 but I’d been officially hired in November 1986 to start as a paid employee on January 1, 1987, so as the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s...”  song says, “It was twenty years ago today...”

I also remember January 1, 1997.  In the Fall of 1996, Mary Ann kept bugging me that she really wanted to have a special “open house” for New Year’s Day for all of our family and friends.  We went “all out”.  We bought lots of food, sent out scads of invitations, and cleaned and spruced up the house.  We expected 30 or 40 or more people to filter in and out, visiting during our 1 p.m. to  8 p.m. open house.  A grand total of 2 people came:  a single mom and her then 9-year-old daughter, who were friends of ours.  We WERE very thankful that they came because otherwise it would have been a total loss!  Later, our church people told me, “We thought that open house was mainly for your FAMILY, so we didn’t come.”  And, our families told us, “We thought that open house was mainly for your CHURCH PEOPLE, so we didn’t come.”  That day was particularly bad for Mary Ann’s self esteem, although it didn’t do a lot for mine either!  Since then we’ve held graduation parties for our kids which have been very well attended, but we’d never even CONSIDER a New Year’s Day open house!

Well, I’m going to stop writing now.  The Lord willing, my next posting will be Thursday morning.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!