Date - Jan/85

Contributor - Freda Witteveen

Title - This Is The Season

Topic - Women

For everything there is a season, and time for every matter under heaven ... a time to break down, and a time to build up,- a time to seek, and a time to lose,- a time to keep, and a time to cast away,' Eccl. 3.-I, 3b, 6

One must really ponder the purpose of the month of January. After the neuroses producing hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Year celebrations, we often confront January, the new month of the new year with feelings of loss and depression. To many, accustomed to the rigors of the Canadian winter, there is a sense of marking time until the coming of spring.

More and more of our friends and family are fortunate in escaping snow and slush in southerly climes, but those of us who remain are able to put January to use because along with the ice, winds and biting cold, it brings a gift of time.

Time of reflection.

Time of evaluation.

Time of anticipation.

Nineteen eighty-four was an incredible year, a myriad of images and controversies. Our feastings of Thanksgiving and Christmas circumscribed in the famine in African countries; the death of Baby Fae after the implantation of the heart of another species; the second artificial heart transplant. Moral and ethical issues are surfacing faster than we ourselves and our church can make conscienable judgements.

The list goes on: the acquittal of Dr. Henry Morgentaler after he openly admitted breaking the law pertaining to abortions; the fanatical adulation of rock stars and rock videos and their questionable influence on teenagers; the assassination of Indira Ghandi and the barbarism that swept her country.

Increases: the national debt, teenage suicides, unemployment, teenage pregnancies, child abuse, wife battering, abuse of the elderly, accumulation of nuclear weapons, in the use of drugs and alcohol.

It was a year indeed of incredible lows: the death of pro-Solidarity priest Jerzy Popieluszko, the deaths of eight policemen, hundred of deaths in India and Mexico as a result of industrial accidents.

It was also a year of incredible highs: the first Canadian in space, the visit of the Pope, a tour by Queen Elizabeth, the achievements of the Winter and Summer Olympics.

Therefore before 1984 fades into history we seek to find our place in it. Have we grown in this year? In the area of personal faith? Have the events of the year shaped our lifestyles or have we remained immune from the destructive forces of evil in this world? Have we enriched through love the lives of those around us? Have we fed the hungry, visited the sick and those in prison? Do we measure up to Christ or have we lowered ourselves to worldly standards?

Is there evidence of growth in your congregation? Did you play a part or become an obstacle to growth? Has our denomination progressed? Were you a supporter or a detracter? Has our spiritual life of 1984 given us cause to be excited about 1985?

Despite all the doom and gloom of days past, there is not much we can do to change what has already happened. But God has given us a great gift, that of a NEW day, and He will give us help to greet that tomorrow.

We must enter the new year with our hand firmly clasped on the Bible. Search God's word for a passage that will inspire you with comfort and strength for the year ahead. Your power will come from the Scripture. For example: "For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken." Psalm 61:5,6.

We must enter this year with praise to God and not with foreboding. Inexplicably by giving thanks and worshipping God will fill the soul with peace, even in time of darkness.

We enter the year with our thoughts focused on God. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee" Isaiah 26:3. There will be joy in store for us if we consistently and consciously read, praise and think of the Father.