No matter where we go, there we are

Rev. Jon Bergen has moved from Scotland to be the new minister at Seeley Lake Baptist Church beginning Jan. 1. Ahead of starting his new position, he shared some thoughts on celebrating “Hogmany” and his anticipation of building new relationships in Seeley Lake in 2023. 

Christmas is past and the New Year is about to begin. Happy Hogmany (Scottish for New Years Eve), it may be a wee while before I say that and people understand what I mean. 

As the new year starts, I’ll be starting my new adventure in Seeley Lake, Montana. A new year, a new life. The challenge is that we look at the New Year as a clean slate, a start over or in golf terms the dreaded Mulligan. The reality is that no matter where we go, there we are. Within the rules we are still to play the ball where it lies. Sure, there are times we can get some relief and often that is what we are looking for. 

I do so like the idea of that fresh start to put the mistakes of the past year behind us and perhaps build on the good for something even better. “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.” says the psalmist in Psalm 90:12. 

We can’t always fix everything from our past, sometimes we can only start from today and do better. As the psalmist asked of God for the help to number his days, so it is for us to seek to number or count our days. We could moan that our lives are short and over too quickly. But the better course is to just take one day and count it, make it matter. 

The story is told of the university student that was hanging a new calendar at the start of the new year and said: ‘It is going to be a beautiful year ahead.’ The roommate asked, ‘How do you know?’ ‘Well,’ said the student hanging the calendar, ‘I can’t tell you about the whole year since it is so long, but I do know that if I do one day at a time that is not so long. I am going to put one beautiful thing into each day and at the end it will be a beautiful year through my efforts to make it so.’

As we begin whatever new adventure in our new year, I hope we will each determine that we will add one beautiful thing into our day and end up with a year that is beautiful. We know that in life there will be some unpleasant things we can’t control but for the things we can, let’s ‘number our days.’