New Math for a New Year

 

Near the end of 2018, my favorite author left this earth for his heavenly home just shy of his 86^th birthday.  Eugene Peterson’s writings have walked alongside God’s Word in my life for many years, helping me to better understand how to navigate my life of faith.  He was a humble man who was trained theologically but never lost sight of the importance of practical Christianity lived out in community with other believers. 

As we begin a New Year, I want to elaborate on some of Peterson’s wisdom from an unlikely source – a poem he published in 2013 entitled The New Math.  Poems were not his usual mode of writing, but this one stands out as I look forward to a new year of living the kingdom life here on earth.  It is based on Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  At the beginning of a new year, we all need wisdom and a proper perspective on how to number our days.

Construct a calendar of grace,

Genesis days and moon-marked months.

Make a Christian year: add

Blessings, subtract sins, divide

Sorrow, multiply love –

An arithmetic to confound the devil.

I am not sure whether Peterson meant this poem as a request to God or as a call to action for each of us, but either way is appropriate.  We need to seek to build grace into our year’s calendar, but we cannot accomplish this without the grace of God and his work in our lives.  Imagine what your year could be like if every day on the 2019 calendar was bathed first and foremost in grace – God’s grace for you as well as your grace for yourself and those you come in contact with.

It is also a joint effort between God and us to create a “Christian year”.  As God brings blessings into our lives, it is our responsibility to recognize them and give him glory.  Sounds easy, but I know from experience that not all of God’s blessings always match our definition of “blessing” – this is where faith comes in and replaces our natural responses.  Secondly, as God forgives (“subtracts”) our sins on a daily basis, we have the responsibility of forgiving those around us whose sins we would rather hold them accountable for.

Third, God often uses those closest to us to divide sorrow in our lives, and we are responsible to join him in doing this in the lives of others we come in contact with.  Sorrow can be overwhelming all by yourself, but it becomes a shared burden when we hold each other up with our tears and with truth from God’s Word in difficult situations.  Lastly, God’s love is never-ending and always being poured out on his children.  It is our job to spread that love to everyone we meet with actions that model our heavenly Father’s unconditional love. 

The longer I walk with God, the more determined I am to look for ways to “confound the devil”.  His days are truly numbered – because the victory has already been won by Christ’s death and resurrection.  But God continues to allow Satan to have his way for a while longer in this world, and I want to do everything I can to thwart his purposes.  Let’s resolve to make 2019 a Christian year that is full of grace – blessing others and glorifying God for his blessings, forgiving others, lifting the burden of sorrow in another’s life, and loving freely as God has loved us.  This is the kind of new math I can get excited about.