What does another New Year mean?

PART ONE
We are on the precipice of a New Year.  At the time of posting this particular blog, the coming New Year is only hours away.

Many will be celebrating the arrival of this New Year with party hats, noise makers, digital clocks, falling balloons, confetti, and more.  But what does it mean?

As with every passing year, 2012 is a mixed bag.  There are the usual ups and downs, including the extremes: lost loved-ones, grief, sorrow, pain, as well as the ushering-in of new-arrivals, joy, gladness, and gain.    Success for some—desires fulfilled, dreams come true.  And failure for others—fallen hopes and dashed dreams; new starts and false beginnings, good endings and bad finishes.  And so it goes.

How does one face another year, especially if it is one filled with dashed hopes and failing dreams?  Much of our ability to recover and rise from the ashes has to do with our attitude, our mindset and heart and our ability to face Reality—the Truth about ourselves and the world we live in.

This takes a good amount of courage.  It also takes a great deal of humility, coupled with faith.

Why does it take humility?  Because we need to acknowledge that we cannot control everything.  We are not all powerful beings.  We are contingent and dependent beings.  There is a Greater Power beyond our little ole self.

Why does it take courage?  Because: we need to face the truth about ourselves, and do so without becoming despondent.  We have a great deal of faults and weaknesses that often add to our miseries and troubles.  That is, truth be told, we are often to blame for much of the grief that we bear.  Sadly, we usually choose to live in denial and avoid dealing directly with our terrible character flaws and weaknesses.

But, so as to not become despairing, we need also to keep faith and embrace the gift of grace; hence, our need of courage, humility, and faith.

PART TWO
But that is not all.  Fundamentally we need perspective.  We need vision.  We need a way of seeing Reality so as to make sense of what is happening, what has happened, and what will happen.

You know all that talk about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world that was supposed to have happened on December 21st of this year?  The hype on that could partly be explained by an intermingling and confusion of two distinctive perspectives on the meaning of time and our place in it.

To simplify, there are two views on time: The one is cyclical and the other is linear.

The Mayans had a cyclical view of time: as for example the four seasons, time goes around and comes around anew.  Hence, for the Mayans, December 21st of 2012 represented nothing more than a marked renewal of a five thousand year calendar time cycle, such as we mark January 1st as the renewal of a twelve month yearly cycle.

However, the Mayan cyclical view of time was confusedly coupled with the Biblical linear perspective of time.  In the linear view, time has a beginning and time will have an ending.

This is a teleological view of time: the understanding that final causes exist with a climatic purpose in mind.  That is to say that phenomenon is guided by a Greater Power and that we are moving toward a certain end.  The ending of time, in this view, is associated with great and dreadful apocalyptic events, which the study of Biblical eschatology is about: concerning last or final matters, as of death, judgment, and our future state.

I suggest we embrace the Biblical Linear view of time.  I believe this view more practically and realistically explains and deals with our human condition (our mental, spiritual, and physical reality and needs) and thus also provides us with a real and tangible hope for the future, for this life and for eternity.

I am sure the reader has nothing against the person of Jesus, who is called the Christ (as opposed, perhaps, to the institutionalized church).  Thus, read for yourself what Jesus says about time, life, death, suffering and pain, and His promise of something far better than we can now imagine.  Jesus definitely advocates a linear view of time—time as we now know it leading to a definite and climatic ending.