Today is January 2nd, 2012. Monday has been my day off for several years. I'm changing this. Today is my last Monday off for a while. All this makes today oddly interesting. I woke up determined not to look at anything but my new Bible, with the exception of the "on" switch to my coffee maker. My new Bible is so pretty. It is a New Classic Reference Edition of the ESV. Published in 2011, it contains the 2011 text of the ESV. The art of Makoto Fujimura graces the cover and more. The font is perfect. It is large enough to read, but it is not officially large print. (I don't need to add to God's daily and systematic dismantling of my pride. As promised in Scripture, he generously provides for my lifetime exploration of humility. I survey my new Bible and whisper to the side, "I am not old!") Added to the pleasure of this new Bible is the choice of RBC ministries this year to have the Daily Bread's "The Bible in One Year" be linear; no skipping from the Old to the New Testament every day. Now I can read straight through, always my preference. Every year at this time too I privately enjoy the glow of having just completed a year through the Bible. As of Saturday I have read the Bible through 17 times in my life over the past 18 years. Nothing compares to this.
But wait! There's more. I live in a house occupied by wonderful, beautiful, messy, louder than life females. Even the cats and the fish are female. I have a man-cave that really is a man-shelter. Here there is order and peace. I'm surrounded by hundreds of books that interest no one else in the house. Within easy reach are swords and other weapons from a few different countries. Though it looks cluttered, every item is in its place and there by my decree. Every shoe, pencil, ball cap, and wire complies. Just outside the door of this sanctuary chaos and disorder reign.
Near my new Bible are five books I've purchased on self-publishing and Amazon. I realize that as a pastor of a church like Goodwill, I can and should write what I'm led to write and make it available to our congregation. I'm not like a writer desperate to reach an audience. Through the radio, the military, and the church I have a large audience, many of whom have asked for materials from me to augment the pulpit. I don't want or need the identity of "author." I am a pastor. That is enough. When it isn't, then I am no longer a pastor. Besides this, I sense that the Lord may want Goodwill to have its own small press, something quite doable these days.
I have another pile of new books about the gospel of Mark. Between a sermon series that will conclude on Easter Sunday in which I'll preach through the entire gospel of Mark and the new Christianity Explored evangelism outreach we'll be doing, which is brilliantly built on Mark: "Let the gospel tell the gospel," 2012 is the year of Mark. I'm really interested in reading through Sproul's commentary/collection of sermons on Mark, which I notice his people published themselves.
Look around your own life today, even if you don't have the day off. I bet you'll find what's really new about the new year to be those things, like a new Bible or a house full of screaming females, that rise above the cycle of new and old. Often we look to the new to get that which we can only get from the timeless. Happy New Year and God bless you!
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