Entering the New Year: A Brief Reflection

Here’s some food for thought as we enter this new year with all of its possibilities and all of its concerns. I find myself looking for that space where I can center down as Howard Thurman wrote in his book Meditations of the Heart (p. 28).

How good it is to center down!

To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by!

The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic;

Our spirits resound with clashings, with noisy silences,

While something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment

and the resting lull.

With full intensity we seek, ere the quiet passes, a fresh sense

of order in our living;

A direction, a strong sure purpose that will structure our confusion

and bring meaning in our chaos.

We look at ourselves in this waiting moment –

the kinds of people we are.

The questions persist: what are we doing with our lives? –

what are the motives that order our days?

What is the end of our doings?

Where are we trying to go?

Where do we put the emphasis and where are our values focused?

For what end do we make sacrifices?

Where is my treasure and what do I love most in life?

What do I hate most in life and to what am I true?

Over and over the questions beat in upon the waiting moment.

As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence,

there is a sound of another kind –

A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.

It moves directly to the core of our being.

Our questions are answered,

Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily round

With the peace of the Eternal in our step.

How good it is to center down!

Ah how good it is to center down. In years past January would be a time to recover from the Advent and Christmas schedule. This year my heart goes out to my colleagues who are in active ministry and get to scamper to prepare for a very early Ash Wednesday. It’s in mid-February and on Valentine’s Day to boot. Uff Dah!

In addition to Thurman’s poem How Good to Center Down, yesterday’s reading from A Year with Thomas Merton spoke to me and reminded me that such a space and time to enter down is found in the deepening of the present in solitude.

Solitude is not found so much by looking outside the boundaries of your dwelling, as by staying within. Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for solitude in the present, you will never find it. — Thomas Merton (Entering the Silence: Becoming A Monk and A Writer, The Journals of Thomas Merton, volume 2, January 3, 1950)

As I look back, 2023 was the year of walking with Swift Presbyterian Church through some challenges and joys, it was also a time to walk with my Dad through his final journey as he made his way through the veil and into his eternal home. It was also a time to retire from active ministry so that Denise and I could begin to care for ourselves after so many years of caring for others.

So here we are, ten days into 2024 and we have a lot on our plate. Go figure, eh? We are heading to a conference this weekend at St Simon’s Island where we will have the opportunity to meet new people and be fed and challenged by such speakers as Cole Arthur Riley (a wonderful writer, speaker, theologian, and activist), Diana Butler Bass (also a wonderful writer, speaker, theologian, and activist), and Brian McLaren (yes, another wonderful writer, speaker, theologian, and activist). Upon our return we should be closing on a house in Mobile, Alabama where we plan on settling down and discerning what God is calling us to do next.

A mentor of mine from the US Air Force Chaplain Corps once described retirement as driving into the pitstop on a race track. The crew checks the car over, puts new tires on the car (re-tiring it), before the driver goes back onto the track and continues the race. We are both excited to see what God has in store for us while at the same time we are also excited to explore centering down and be in the present as Thurman and Merton both described in different ways.

Well, as we begin our next chapter in this thing called life, my prayer for you, dear reader, is that you will find those moments where you can center down and simply be still. It is a privilege to walk with you through this journey called life.

For years I would end my daily Evening Prayer on my blog with this: Dona Nobis Pacem.

May we be filled with that peace. I invite you to enjoy this beautiful rendition of Dona Nobis Pacem from Julie Gaulke.