Happy New Year

I know of no better New Year’s prayer than this one – Through the Coming Year – by Howard Thurman:

Grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart.

There will be much to test me and to make weak my strength before the year ends.  In my confusion I shall often say the word that is not true and do the thing of which I am ashamed.  There will be errors of the mind and great inaccuracies of judgment which shall render me the victim on my own stupidities.  In seeking the light, I shall again and again find myself walking in darkness.  I shall mistake my light for Thy light and I shall shrink from the responsibility of the choice I make.  All of these things, and more, will be true for me because I have not learned how to keep my hand in Thy hand.

Nevertheless, grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart.  May I never give the approval of my heart to error, to falseness, to weakness, to vainglory, to sin.  Though my days be marked with failures, stumblings, failings, let my spirit be free so that Thou mayest take it and redeem my moments in all the ways my needs reveal.  Give me the quiet assurance of Thy Love and Thy Presence.

Grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart.

I know of no better New Year’s song than this one – One Good Year – from Slaid Cleaves:

In these I am reminded that most of my wounds are indeed self-inflicted, or, to take Thurman’s harsher note, most often I am (ugh!) “the victim of my own stupidities.”  Still, God sees past the dunce cap firmly planted on my head and steps in to “redeem my moments in all the ways my needs reveal.”  That, more than anything else, should make this a —

Happy New Year!