bobcooley - New Years and New Beginnings

Thought I'd share a few New Year day reflections.

Late morning, January 1, 2010: The city of Lima is as
quiet as you'll ever hear it. Last night it was not so...

The fireworks began in earnest about 11:00 p.m. and
continued unabated until about 1:30

a.m. There is a roaring crescendo that begins before midnight that lasts
perhaps 30 minutes. A sprawling city of
about 8 million people, Lima explodes in fireworks on New Year's Eve (as it
also does on Christmas Eve). In addition
to fire crackers that explode and make much smoke and noise, there are
lots of fireworks of the rocket or airborne variety. These are actually quite impressive. I have no doubt that the pyrotechnics can readily
be observed from outer space. If there is such a thing as man-made global warming, this South American custom makes its own significant contribution. A haze of smoke and the smell of sulfur hangs over the city for many hours afterward.

There is a cevicheria (a restaurant/bar) across from our
apartment. The party there began around
midnight. Being quiet for the neighbor's
sake simply does not enter the minds of Peruvians. After struggling for hours to get to sleep, I
woke up at 5:00 a.m. and the fiesta was still going strong. Finally, around 10:45 a.m. the celebration exhausted
itself to an end and, most likely, a bunch of whimpering hang overs. Our neighbors put in a full ten-hour shift
of drinking, dancing and singing. They
know how to party hearty...I'll give them that.

Here, one of the traditions is for women to purchase and
wear yellow underwear. The belief is
that doing so will help bring you prosperity. Some Peruvians will pack a bag and walk around the block in hopes that they
will be able to travel in the coming year.

On one level, celebrating the arrival of a New Year is
simply an excuse to P-A-R-T-Y!!! But on
another level, a New Year represents a new beginning. At some point, we all need a fresh start, don't
we? The thought of wiping the slate
clean and beginning anew seems to be universally valued. The start of another
year provides a land mark to put last year's difficulties behind us and to hope
for a brighter future.

Some of us make New Year resolutions in the hope that
this year will be better that the ones past. At the same time, there seems to
be a consensus that resolutions rarely pan out the way we hope they will. This "consensus" apparently does little to
curb our tendency to make resolutions. I
confess to making my own 2010 resolution: This year I will do a better job of
reading through the Bible in one year. Hold me to it, will you?

Of course, the ultimate "new beginning" is the one provided
through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In John 3, Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus and said,

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the
kingdom of God unless he is born again."

This new
beginning not only erases every sin we ever committed, but we are also given
new life that brings with it the power to gain victory over that which once
enslaved us.

Now there's a
worthy reason to celebrate.