I was once told that all change feels like lost. The passing of the new year always produces at least one cartoonist who draws the passing of the torch. The past year is drawn as an aged man with a long beard who appears to be gasping for his last breath and the new year is portrayed as this baby, innocent and fragile but indeed young. So maybe as we move from one year to the next, change might feel like death or lost, something has passed which will not return.

For some this might be a good thing. 2005 was not easy for some of our families. One family has actually adopted the motto, “Get it fixed in 2006.”

As we face tomorrow both in our homes and in our church what should be our approach?

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.[1]

Tomorrow requires love and self discipline, not fear. Fear and apprehension does not come from God, it is the result of living in a world with shows dedicated to bad news, like the evening news.

In our homes, tomorrow requires a measure of self-discipline. Whether we are battling a weight issue or fighting a unhealthy habit or trying to save for the future, self-discipline is the answer. The good news is God has given us such a spirit, we are designed to be self-disciplined. The advertisers of course want to us to be undisciplined. When we look at tomorrow and the challenge of paying for college or dealing with a new in-law or battling our diabetes we can get afraid. We can look at our bank account or our family medical history and go what’ the use. Yet with discipline our diabetes can be managed and money can be saved.

Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got.  Oddly Plato had it correct when he said, "The first and best victory is to conquer self." Others put it in a more modern vernacular, "You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself." Self-discipline leads to our dreams. H. Jackson Brown has an insightful way of describing the role of self-discipline. "Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways."

As we move forward as a church, fear and doubt are not our allies. Self-discipline, however, is our friend. Discipline is the ability to withstand fear, to look beyond today and see tomorrow. We have a vision of where we want to head, a vision of a church with open doors and grace. Self-discipline will require us to look beyond today and into the future.

A while back my beautiful Maple tree was leveled. I planted another tree; it will be thirty years before it provides the shade, color, and enjoyment of the former Maple. I may not live long enough to sit under its shade, but self-discipline requires planting the tree anyway. As we look forward to our future, we must make decisions based on what is best not just for today but for the day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow will also require us to do what we have not done and try what we have never tried. To prepare for tomorrow we have to be progressive.

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his

disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The

Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful o

the Sabbath?"

 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."[2]

From time to time we hear people say, “you shouldn’t do that.” What they usually mean is we have done something wrong, at least according to them.

Jesus heard it from time to time, ”don’t pick the ears of corn” “don’t heal on the Sabbath” and it goes on and on. Of course the complaints then and now are legitimate. Jesus was crossing a line, pushing people to stop thinking about the law and start considering the people. When we join Jesus, our priority is not to do things different but to think about people instead of rules. The label for such thinking is usually “progressive.”

When people push the boundaries of conventional thinking they are usually labeled progressive. Some mean this as a slap others mean it as a compliment. Progressive is one of those rare words that cannot be easily lumped into a category. Does it mean conservative or liberal?

Sam Walton was progressive, so is Oprah. Progressive is a state of mind, not a political agenda. Progressive is to see the world as opportunity.

My observation has been that people tend to live with on of two different perspectives. I want you to identify the primary perspective from which you live life. People either have a microscopic view of life or telescopic view of life. If you have a microscope perspective, your perception of life is based on your current circumstances. It is based on what you see, what you feel and what you hear in the present moment. You are consumed with the present moment. A microscope perspective always focuses on the problem, always sees the obstacles, always sees the limitations. Microscope people tend to operate on a scarcity mentality.

If Jesus had used a microscope he would have told the disciple to wait for their meal until they got to town. It’s the Sabbath and to eat from the field will bring unnecessary attention to our movement and slow us down. Instead Jesus uses a telescope; he wants a different world a world that accepts eating when you are hungry and not having to follow laws made for self-destruction. Jesus sees the future and the opportunity. He was not ignorant he knew that to eat the grain would create hardship but that was ok, because it planted the seed of hope for tomorrow. “The present is never our goal: the past and present are our means: the future alone is our goal. Thus, we never live but we hope to live; and always hoping to be happy, it is inevitable that we will never be so.”[3]

To live progressively as individuals and as a church is to be optimistic.  In 2006 we will get it done. Can’t never could. As Yoda put it, “There is no try, there is only do or don’t do.” We can touch people with grace instead of guilt, we can emphasis the Bible without using it as a weapon, we can give away our hearts and still have more than when we started. In 2006 you can reach your goals, there will be time when we are sidetracked but the future is prepared for the optimistic.

Furthermore tomorrow will ask us to let it go.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come![4]

This was Paul’s wonderful way of putting it. In Christ, you get to start over. I remember playing football with the kids in my neighborhood. When we had a kickoff and it looked as if it was going out of bounds we would holler, “Do over.” This was our way of saying it did not count, and we got another try.

God’s way of saying the same thing was the cross. We get another chance. We are perpetually forgiven because we are habitual sinners. We try and fail. When we do we are tempted to just stay on the canvas, most people do. Believers, however, have the power to rise up, the power to start over.

We all failed in 2005. We all sinned. This might have been the year envy got the best of us or the year anger wore us down. We may have had disappointments this year that side tracked us. A divorce, loosing a job, our investments tanking. We may have wanted to drop twenty pounds and we found ten. We may have wanted to learn a new skill and we did not. We may have a wanted to spend less time at work and more time at home, and we failed miserably. It may not be ok but it is forgiven. It is in the past. As Paul wrote, “the old is gone.” So let it go.

 Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.[5] The old is indeed gone look toward tomorrow. We can clutch the past so tight that our arms are to full to embrace the future. So the trick is to let go.[6]

Let go of fear, apprehension, and self-loathing. For our church family and for ourselves tomorrow will require self-discipline, optimism, and forgiveness and with such the new will indeed come and this is of course good news.