Matthew Trexler . January 2, 2022 . Lessons for a New Year

1. Everybody Moved

“You can not drift to a desired location.”

2. Everybody was Uncertain

3. Everybody was Revealed

“MOVE TO THE CENTER OF THE WHEEL”

“Imagine life as a big wagon wheel. If we emotionally live on the outer rim, then as the wheel turns, we are spun around to extreme highs and lows in rapid and dizzying succession. But if we can learn to move closer to the mid-point of the hub, we become much more centered. The wheel will spin, but we won’t be so dramatically thrown about by its motion.”

Acts 20:22-24 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

1. Redefine what success means to me. CHARACTER

2. Live by faith, not fear. COURAGE

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

“When the sailor is out on the sea and everything is changing around him, as the waves are continually being born and dying, he does not stare into the depths of these, since they vary. He looks up at the stars. And why? Because they are faithful—as they stand now, they stood for the patriarchs, and will stand for coming generations. By what means then does he conquer changing conditions? Through the eternal: By means of the eternal, one can conquer the future, because the eternal is the foundation of the future.”

~Soren Kierkegaard

3. Relationally Connected

Serenity Prayer . God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.

~Reinhold Niebuhr