An Old Challenge for a New Year

Rev. Jason D. Thompson, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

The advent of the New Year prompts many of us to think about our lives and its meaning. Similar to me, this time of the year motivates me to do what I read in a caption recently, to “teach them early what we learned late.” To facilitate a discussion about our lives now and in the future, grab a blank sheet of paper and at the top, write January 1, 2023; at the bottom, write “December 31, 2023.” This blank sheet of paper represents (metaphorically) the year ahead. Right now, the space between those two dates is similar to what this impending year offers us: a blank space waiting to be filled.

What will you do with this space? To get the right answer, we must first ask the right question, and I believe both the question and answer find their source in God, not in material possessions that society uses to determine “success.” So the question every person must ask in 2023 is this: What is God doing, and how can I join?

Genesis 1, a text most appropriate for a beginning, asserts that God, the One Almighty, Benevolent God, created the world out of “nothing.” God’s power calls forth something purposeful and valuable that doesn’t exist until God calls it. At the beginning of the created order, God sees the earth as “a formless void” (Genesis 1:2). The Hebrew word for formless suggests that the earth was “desolate,” “worthless,” and “vain;” the earth was confused, empty, literally nothing. And then, according to the creation account, the moment and event change everything: “…a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said…” (Genesis 1:2-3a). Yes, God spoke, and when God speaks, God is trying to accomplish something. God speaks to bring something from nothing, light from darkness, and order from chaos.

Now, what will you do with that paper, representing a metaphor for your life? Ask again: What is God doing, and how can I join? We are called to join God in God’s work. “The Rabbis say, the work of creation continues, and the world is still in the process of creation, as long as the conflict between good and evil remains undecided. Ethically the world is thus still ‘unfinished,’ and it is man’s glorious privilege to help finish it. He can by his life hasten the triumph of the forces of good in the universe” (Pentateuch and Haftorahs, p. 6).

Here is our challenge, should we choose to accept it: If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you do not, you will find an excuse. So, for what exactly are you waiting? Sure, you have tried and failed, messed up, embarrassed yourself, or felt ashamed. You might even have a few lingering regrets now. But here is what you need to know and embrace: It does not matter what you have done. What matters is what you do! And the fact that you are still alive – created and made in God’s image – means that God is still creating and is waiting for you to join God in accomplishing God’s work.

Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “It takes three things to attain a sense of significant being: God, a soul (me, you), and a moment. And the three are (already) here” (I Asked for Wonder, 65). God is here. You are here. The question remains: How will you join God in God’s work with the moment you have?

The Rev. Jason Thompson is Pastor of the Historic St. Andrews AME Church in Sacramento, CA, the oldest congregation on the Pacific Coast. He is also the Interim Director of Music Education and a Visiting Professor at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.