Past, Present, and Future

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it … Bill Wilson

We have reached the end of 2011. What kind of year has it been for you? More importantly, what kind of year do you want 2012 to be?

New Year is a hinge. It is an artificial line drawn in the sands of time dividing what once was from what is yet to be.

That is actually true of every day. For some reason, we find significance in the fact the earth has made it one more time around the sun; planet killing asteroids have swung by for a visit (and missed); citizens have risen up and made their voices heard (as they do from time to time when life becomes too unbearable to sit idly by on the sidelines); and wars are winding down in some places while they’re churning up in yet others.

One wonders, will it ever change? Will there ever be a day we turn on the news and find it has been cancelled because there’s nothing to report – nothing “new under the sun”?

No, each day dawns fresh with hope and promises. Today does not have to be a repeat of yesterday. Today does not have to be a foretaste of what is yet to come. Today is today; nothing less and nothing more. It simply “is” and is to be valued for itself.

When one has had a bad day, week, month, or year, it is tempting to want to shut the door or close the book and forget about it. Why not?

It seems natural to want to capture the joys of life. We capture them on film; we memorialize them in our journals, diaries, blogs, and tweets; in our hearts we hang onto those memories of people we love, things we’ve done, and places we’ve been – hoping against hope they will stay fresh and available for instant recall.

Conversely, when we’ve faced the hardships of life, of mistakes we’ve made, failures in various endeavors and enterprises, or the pain of loss, it seems just as natural to want to shut the door on those events that have injured us, or those people we have hurt or who have harmed us. It seems natural to want to erase those memories, or to consign them to the dustbin of history.

But we really can’t do either, can we? We cannot capture the good, and we cannot truly release the bad. Life happens, and it is imprinted on our souls with indelible ink. We are tattooed for better or for worse, and the only question we face is what we will do with it: cover it up, display it proudly, or deny it happened at all.

Whether one finds that 2011 was a good or bad year for them is not relevant.

What matters is reviewing our thoughts (and the way we think about things), our statements (and whether the things we have said were helpful or hurtful), and our actions (things done and left undone), and then addressing the matters of character that may have contributed to the kind of year we had.

We need to ask questions: In what did we do well? In what did we do poorly? With whom are we in good stead? With whom do we need to repair relations? In what areas have we grown stronger, wiser, or more trustworthy? In what areas have we let down God, neighbor, or self?

Without reflection, there is no significance to our having made this trip around the sun.

Taking time to reflect, we can each make plans for a better tomorrow, and that is a very good thing. Don’t make resolutions; make plans.

For a plan to succeed it must be Specific; it must be Achievable; it must have Value; and it must have and End (so you know whether or not you accomplished it).

Remember, we build today on the foundation that was laid yesterday, but tomorrow is built on the foundation we lay today, so let’s keep an open door on the past and make sure today counts here in this, our world. Amen.