This is an ‘examen’ for a new year, a way to gracefully examine your life in the light of God.  There will be questions for you to wonder, memories you will be invited to remember, promises from scripture given for you to claim, and resolve offered for the future. The old year is completed.  The new year lies before us like a blank canvas yet to be painted.  Time moves so quickly that we rarely get a moment to intentionally stop and look backwards and dream forwards and place our whole life in the presence of God.  So find a comfortable position – relaxed but alert.  Remember you are in God’s loving presence.  As you read along, you might find it helpful to speak aloud the phrases that are in bold type, or if you are doing this examen with others the group could speak the bold type.

How are you in your body?  Is your body achy and tired or is it energized and calmed?  Where do you feel tension in your body?  Where do feel relaxed?  Let your body be before God.

For it is in God that we live and move and have our being.

How are you in your mind?  Is your mind racing and cluttered or is it at rest and ordered?  Where do your thoughts turn when your body stops moving? Let your body be before God.

For it is in God that we live  and move and have our being.

How are you in your feelings?  Are you feeling a low level anger or a managable sadness or contented or happy?  Sometimes it’s difficult to name how you are feeling.  Let your feelings be before God.

For it is in God that we live and move and have our being.

Take a breath.  Hold it, then release it.  That was one breath out of 10,541,200 breaths that you’ve taken over the last year.  Find your pulse on your wrist or your neck.  Feel the pulse of your heart.  That was one beat out of 37,869,120 heart beats during the course of the last year.  Rub your hands together and feel the touch of your skin.  Your outer layer of skin will have replaced itself twelve times over the last year.  Your fingernails have replaced themselves twice.  Your hair has grown about six inches.  Back in 2003 there was not a cell in your body that you currently have now.  Essentially you have a new body every seven years.  And not only is your body changing with time, but Christ is also changing your inner person…. the you of you.

< 2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-20 >

From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

I am in Christ, I am a new creation;

The old has gone, the new has come!

I am in Christ, I am a new creation;

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting our sins against us.

I am in Christ, I am a new creation;

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

I am in Christ, I am a new creation;

In a couple minutes we are going to reflect on 2009 and wonder what it’s time to do in the new year.  But before you explore the mystery of your heart, ask to receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance so that you can look upon your actions and motives with honesty and patience. The Spirit gives you a freedom to look upon yourself without condemnation and without complacency and therefore be open to growth and maturity.  God’s love has been at work in your life over the course of the last year.  Ask the Holy Spirit to how so that you can give thanks for that time and discern what it’s time to be about now.

< ECCLESIASTES 3 >

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Imagine a blank canvas in your mind.  Reflect now upon your last year.  Perhaps your year felt like a Jackson Pollack painting. Or perhaps like a Claude Monet?  Or maybe more like a Salvador Dali?  Find a style of painting that might represent your last year and imagine the canvas of your year.

Whether this was the worst, best, craziest or most ordinary year of your life, it’s likely that you are thinking about how this new year might be different.  This year, like every year, millions of Americans will resolve to lose weight, quit smoking, spend more time with their family, or get out of debt.  And this year, even though they may want all these things, millions of Americans will refuse to make resolutions because they don’t think new year’s resolutions are effective.  So what will create actual change, not just superficial exterior change that might last through february, but sustainable change in our hearts and minds?  The prophet Ezekiel spoke of a time when God would change his people from the inside out:

< EZEKIEL 11 >

Then you, my people, will return to me, your God, and I will remove all your detestable idols.  I will give you an undivided heart and put a new spirit in you;

We will be your people, and you will be our God.

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  Then I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my ways and be careful to keep my laws.

We will be your people, and you will be our God.

Before you is a new year, a fresh start, a blank canvas.  In order to move into the future you must pack light.  You can’t, and probably don’t want to take everything with you from the previous year.  But there are somethings, some experiences, some wisdom, some new gifts that you certainly want to bring with you into the new year.  So think back upon the last 365 days.  Where were you in your life a month ago…

three months ago…

six, nine, or twelve months ago?

What events stick out to you?

What things marked you this year, what you might consider now, both good or bad?

What were you involved in and who were you with?

Review your hopes and hesitations.

What moved you to act the way you did?

What things do you want to grieve for?

What things do you want to be thankful for?

What parts of yourself do you want to have compassion on?

What parts of yourself do you want to encourage to blossom?

Lay all these things before the God who made you and continues to make you.

< REVELATION 21 >

I saw a vision of new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

God is making all things new.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

God is making all things new.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with people, and God will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

God is making all things new.

God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

God is making all things new.

Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.  It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

(you’ll have to do a little preparation to pull off this next part)

So what is it the right time for in your life?

There are two stations here – one for things that you wish to leave behind you and not continue to carry into the new year.  You are welcome to release whatever regret you have, whatever you wish to leave behind by writing it onto paper and placing it into the fire.

The other is for things that you wish to take with you into the new year and to ask for resolve from God’s Spirit.  You are welcome to write whatever desires, memories, plans for the future, whatever change on a letter, address the envelope to yourself and we’ll mail it to you sometime during the year.  Feel free to participate in both, one or none of the stations.  This space is for you to be with God.  Enjoy.

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