Looking Back

An episode of the Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church podcast, hosted by WEPC, titled "Looking Back" was published on January 4, 2022 and runs 49 minutes.

January 4, 2022 ·49m · Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church

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Summary

In some ways, a new year brings certain changes. We put the old calendar away and hang a new one on the wall. We spend the next ten days writing the wrong year on everything, crossing it off, and then writing the correct one. We often approach the new year as a time to start new habits or try to break old ones. The sensation of beginning a new year can evoke a hopeful sense of having a fresh start or a clean slate. In other ways, a new year also picks up exactly where the last year left off. The dirty dishes I leave in my sink on December 31 will still be there on January 1. The money that I spend in the week after Christmas will remain absent from my wallet during the week after New Year's Day. Overall, most of the rhythms and habits of my life in January will probably be pretty similar to what they were a few weeks or months before. Is there any real point, then, to beginning a new year, or is this just a mind game we play with ourselves? Maybe it's a bit of both. If nothing else, times of ending and beginning offer us a natural and meaningful opportunity to pause, take in our surroundings, reorient ourselves in light of bigger-picture realities, and then resume our activities with a renewed sense of purpose. That is exactly what we will be doing during the next two Sundays in our upcoming sermon series "Looking Back, Looking Ahead." This week we will look back on the past through the lens of Psalm 136. This Psalm offers us a template for recounting our stories and experiences in light of who God is and how He is at work in our lives. Next Sunday, Pastor Aaron will lead us in the theme of looking ahead in anticipation of God's leading during 2022 and beyond.

Episode Description

In some ways, a new year brings certain changes. We put the old calendar away and hang a new one on the wall. We spend the next ten days writing the wrong year on everything, crossing it off, and then writing the correct one. We often approach the new year as a time to start new habits or try to break old ones. The sensation of beginning a new year can evoke a hopeful sense of having a fresh start or a clean slate.

In other ways, a new year also picks up exactly where the last year left off. The dirty dishes I leave in my sink on December 31 will still be there on January 1. The money that I spend in the week after Christmas will remain absent from my wallet during the week after New Year's Day. Overall, most of the rhythms and habits of my life in January will probably be pretty similar to what they were a few weeks or months before.

Is there any real point, then, to beginning a new year, or is this just a mind game we play with ourselves? Maybe it's a bit of both. If nothing else, times of ending and beginning offer us a natural and meaningful opportunity to pause, take in our surroundings, reorient ourselves in light of bigger-picture realities, and then resume our activities with a renewed sense of purpose.

That is exactly what we will be doing during the next two Sundays in our upcoming sermon series "Looking Back, Looking Ahead." This week we will look back on the past through the lens of Psalm 136. This Psalm offers us a template for recounting our stories and experiences in light of who God is and how He is at work in our lives. Next Sunday, Pastor Aaron will lead us in the theme of looking ahead in anticipation of God's leading during 2022 and beyond.