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Message from the Pastor |

January, 2001

The Romans named this month after Janus: the two-faced god who had the unique ability to see
backward and forward at the same time.

     There seems to be something innate in this time of year that pushes us to look back on the
immediate past, and to look forward to our immediate future.  Especially at this beginning of a new
millennium, it is natural for us to stop and to take stock of our situation: looking at where we've been
this past year, what we've done, what's happening to us, as well as looking at what may lie ahead for
us in the next few months.

     Posted on my wall over my desk is this poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I read these words
everyday and they inform my life. 

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
He or she is rich who owns the day, 
and no one owns the day who allows it be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in.  
Forget them as soon as you can;
tomorrow is a new day; 
begin it well and serenely, 
with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.  
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, 
to waste a moment on the yesterdays. 
 

What a great thought for the new year, don't you think?
It couldn't be more Biblical.  We read in the Psalms: 
This is the day the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it!  

If you do not already do so, resolve to begin each day of the new year with this greeting.  
As many others can attest to, this resolution can literally change your life!

Seeing each day as a clean slate, we are free for new hopes, new invitations, new chances.  
Begin it well and serenely, Emerson charges.  
Our yesterdays are history.  
We are not served well by anxiety and fret and remorse and guilt.
Don't  waste a moment on the yesterdays! . . . 
Forget them as soon as you can! . . . 
Finish every day and be done with it.

Richness and wealth and the good life, ultimately are not measured in monetary units. 
Accumulations of things and annuities and stocks provide for little security in God's economy.

No, richness and wealth and the good life, are by-products of owning the day.   That is,
recognizing if for what it is: a gift from God.  Paying homage for the day helps the soul focus on
what is really important  --  and what is not.

The Psalmist reminds us that each of our days are God-given.  
What we do with them is up to us. 
How we spend them is up to us. 
How we get through them is up to us.
It makes a difference.

Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with
unhealthiness.  Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, 
unpleasantness, and, ultimately, an unfilled life.

     At the beginning of this new year, write it on your heart that every day is the best day of
the year!

See you in church, 

          Clyde E. Griffith

In our sacred text, the one we call Emmanuel (which means God Is With Us) said,
"I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly!"