I would like to invite you (and myself) and your church community (and the Baptist Union) to a little New Years, first week exercise. It has to do with our title this week. Bear with me. My wife Kerry, (who is a physio-O.T. and a trained counselor) along with a friend (Kevin, the father of Christmas) introduced me to “object permanence” this week. Imagine a baby in a high chair who has an object placed before them. The meaning of the object permanence is this: at an early stage of childhood if an object “falls off the table “it is forgotten, it has no object or memory permanence for the child. At a later developmental stage for a child if an object is removed or falls off the table, it is remembered… it has achieved object permanence. You get the idea.
It seems to me that as individuals grow, nature and develop we need to be mindful of “object permanence” in our lives. We need to decide and keep touch of the things we want to remember, concentrate or continue to grow and mature in. We also need to develop a way of retrieving things that have “fallen off the table” in our lives. Sometimes I find that there are things I neither remembered nor have forgotten. Sometimes I simply have a vague sense that something is missing and I can’t put my finger on it.
The following are some prompts (call them questions of your life) or “object permanence”; what we remember, what we may have forgotten and what we need to retrieve.
- How is personal my personal reading of Scripture?
- How is my life of prayer in God?
- Am I part of a small group or group that I share with?
- Do I ask God what He has called me to?
- Do I acknowledge the resources God has given me for what he has called me too?
- Am I thankful to God?
- Do I seek to serve others?
- If there are seasons in my life; “years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25) how is the Holy Spirit (often with others) help me to discover a season that is fruitful?
Your own questions will be much more relevant than these beginning attempts.
Will you ask the Lord and a friend or two to wrestle with you on this topic?
This is a New Beginning the New Year.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Happy and Deepening New Year,
Jeremy Bell