This impromptu bridge across Eagle Creek, in the northern Oregon Cascades, provides passage from here to there, if you are paying attention. Photo by Russell Taylor, used with permission

Approx. read time: 2:10 min.

My face aches already from all the well wishes, given and received, for a “Happy New Year.”

The phrase itself speaks of hope and yearnings for a fresh start. 

Fresh starts are good! Fresh starts are merciful.

But I’m thinking, now, of a different possibility. What if we said: “Continue on with what you’ve been doing!”

Well, I need to insert an asterisk here: *… assuming that what you’ve been doing is outward facing, comes from a good heart, and in some way blesses others.

The fact is, realities we’ve created in the year now passing are realities we carry with us into the year ahead. 

At every step we’re invited to imagine, to risk, to hope, to act, to build what is life-giving and just and often deemed “not possible”—right here, right now, in the shell of the old.

Sure, it may be new work, the “something new” announced by the prophet Isaiah. But it’s the same ancient tradition of doing the works of compassion and justice, imagination and courage, in a world that knows both darkness and light.

We don’t need to wait for the right circumstances, the right permissions, the right budget. Jesus didn’t. You need healing? Let me touch you! You’re hungry? Let’s feed you! You’re bent over with guilt? Let me restore your dignity!

Jesus lived his Abba’s vision—because he believed it’s possible!

You and I hold power today to live that vision, too. Our meaning-making values, attitudes, and practices lean us toward a society of justice, generosity, and joy—a world that works for everyone.

So I say to you: “Continue on with what you’ve been doing!” 

In these in-between days, take some time to name what merits continuation in your life, what’s outward facing, comes from a good heart, and in some way blesses others.

My print collection of stories, Living as Jesus Taught, will jumpstart the imagination, as will my spoken word album of the same title. When you purchase author-direct, you support my work directly.

Continue on! Live in peace. Love one another. And please, share this post! And let me know your thoughts.