What’s your favorite song about January? Or what’s your favorite party holiday in January? Unless you have a birthday, this month there are not a lot of parties going on. The beginning of the year can feel like a huge letdown after the big holiday season we celebrate at the end of the year. Kicked off by Halloween, we spend the last 62 days of the year looking at decorations, being reminded to be thankful, and looking forward to some (if not all) the parties we will attend. Then we count down from ten, yell, “Happy New Year,” go to bed and it’s like a switch gets flipped.
Your first day back at work in January hits you like a slap in the face. All that stuff you decided could wait ‘til after the holidays, now needs to get done. You drive past the house and can be a little annoyed that your neighbor still has their lights up. It is annoying but not unexpected. It is just one of the ebbs and flows of life.
We love those mountain top experiences: times when you feel the happiest, the most accomplished, the closest to your friends and family, or those times you felt closest to God. Unfortunately, we can’t live our lives feeling that way all the time. You still need to do the hard work of living life on earth. It’s in coming down from these mountain top experiences that we need to remind ourselves that we still carry those memories with us.
Psalm 118:19-24
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Even when January comes in like a ton of bricks, we can express joy. It might be a little quieter than it was a month ago. We might not see the delight of hopeful expectation on the faces around us, but God hasn’t changed. God is the same no matter what the calendar says. No matter how far we get from the mountain top we can hold in our hearts the joy we felt when we were there and strive to get there again.