Dash of Thought January 2025

Good New Year’s resolutions - this was the topic of discussion in a wide variety of media in the final days of last year. The authors and experts also reported on the experience that disillusionment usually followed because the good intentions were thwarted by reality. They said that it would, therefore, be better not to make too many resolutions.
 
I must confess that I have never made any resolutions or set any goals at the beginning of the year. I don't see why the turn of the year should be an occasion to do so, when all it does is add a 1 to the year so far. I think other circumstances give more reason for good resolutions and goals. But that doesn't mean that the turn of the year isn't a special moment for me. Every year, I look forward to the end-of-year worship service and the moment when the old year turns into the new. These are moments that touch me every time and in which I realize what Dietrich Bonhoeffer put into words in his poem at the turn of the year: "By gentle powers lovingly surrounded, with patience we’ll endure, let come what may. God is with us at night and in the morning and certainly on every future day".
 
It is our task to shape the world as good stewards of God. This includes our personal life, but also that of the community. It is necessary and good to consider for ourselves - and also with each other - what is important now and what we want or need to use our abilities for - and then work towards this. But we will also experience that things will come that we cannot control and that will thwart our plans. The certainty of being safe in God's hands and an attitude of expectation characterized by confidence with regard to what is to come give us the serenity we need to accept things as they are without falling into the end-of-year blues.
 
I wish everyone this confident expectation and the ever-new experience of God's presence in the new year
 
Bishop Stefan Zürcher