A Whole New Year

 We will soon enter a whole new year, 2021. Very few could say they were sorry 2020 was ending. We are given a re-boot. 

What will you do with your fresh start? Will you thank God for the vaccines that were developed so quickly in 2020? Will you appreciate the time you were able to spend with your family? Or, will you blame God that He "let" Covid-19 kill so many people, make many more sick, and destroy the economy?

God did none of that. You may accuse, "Did He stop any of it from happening?" Did you?

Life happens to the living. Praise the Lord, we are among the living. Let 2021 be the year when we make life better for others; when we stop complaining that we are among the living rather than the angels; when we begin to find the reason for our life and praise God for it.

Let's Pray: "Oh Father God who lives in Heaven and in our hearts at the same time, holy, holy, holy is your name . . . the precious name I sometimes tarnish. Forgive me Father and let this new year be a new beginning for my walk with You. May Your kingdom of heaven be my new dwelling place, so that Your will may be accomplished in my life. For today, I ask that the virus released on the world may be dissolved into dust with the vaccines You laid on scientists' creative minds. Forgive me for the part I may have paid that added to the division in our country. Bring Love, and Hope, and Acceptance to everyone. Fill us so full of Your light we are unable to share anything but Your essence - Your love. To you, oh Father, belongs all the glory. By the power of the name of your son, Jesus the Christ, I pray. Amen"

Many blessings and much healing to you in this coming year of 2021,

Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.

Copyright 2020, 2021 Doris Gaines Rapp

Who Were You?

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

1 Peter 2:9

When a friend introduces us to a retired person, they may say, “He was the principal at the high school.” Or, “She was judge of Superior Court Four.” That was their job when they were active in their career. If all they “were” was their job title, they become invisible when they retire. Are you only your job description?

When I was a child and student at Pasadena Grade School, my principal, Miss Miller, asked me to come to her office after lunch and help file some papers. Wow, gray hair-in-a-bun, ankle-length dark dresses, pronounced underbite, strict and beloved Miss Rose Miller asked for my help. It never occurred to me that I should inform my teacher I wouldn’t be in class after lunch. After all, Miss Miller was the Grand Poobah of everyone and everything.

When I returned to class, brown-flat-men’s-shoes-Mrs. Haas waited at the classroom door with her arms folded and a stern expression. She asked, “Where have you been? Who do you think you are?”

I knew where I had been, but I was flabbergasted with the second question. I had no idea who I was. Humiliated, I took my seat in the classroom and vowed to myself, if asked again, I would know the answer. I would be able to say, “I am—“

Over time, my answer to the identity question expanded. I didn’t think I was-; I knew myself to be, “a child of the living God, a disciple of my risen savior, Jesus Christ, a wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother, friend, novelist, psychologist, catalystic speaker.”

I will never “used to be” any of these descriptors. As our scripture states, I am all of these, not to boast, but to “declare the praises of him.” When I am one-hundred four years old, I will still be a child of the living God; a joint heir with Jesus for all God has to offer.

As you develop your own answer to the question, “Who do you think you are?” will your identity fade and disappear? Will you evaporated into a “has-been” or a “used to be” as defined by your job or as the world as a whole may describe you? Or, will you wrap your identity in WHO you are and WHOSE you are?  To be an always-living-soul we must know who we are apart from how the world knows us. Let us pray:

“Father God, you have chosen me, calling me out of the darkness, to proclaim who and whose I am, in order to praise your holy name. I am here to bear witness to your grace and glory. That is the job or career of my soul, my true identity. May I come to a clear awareness of who I am.  For today, I ask that I may see the reality of who I am and stand amazed by the truth of the origin of my soul. Forgive me when I have been afraid to lose my identity. Without a willingness to give up who I “think” I am, I can never become who I “know” myself to be. I now borrow from the holiness and son-ship of Jesus Christ and pray in his name and by his power. Amen”

Doris

Copyright 2020 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D

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