Happy New Year 2012! What a wonderful holiday season we have enjoyed with family, friends, and fellow Christians celebrating the closing of 2011 and the beginning of a brand new year full of opportunities and challenges. Every moment can be a time of renewal for every Christian.

Please consider the following poem written by Nixon Waterman and think about these thoughts as we press on into 2012. This poem was sent from the CEO of the company my wife works for and offers a great new perspective to business and to Christian living.

What Have We Done Today?
By Nixon Waterman

We shall do much in the years to come,
But what have we done today?
We shall give our gold in princely sum,
But what did we give today?
We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
We shall plant a hope in place of fear,
We shall speak the words of love and cheer,
But what did we speak today?

We shall be so kind in the after-while,
But what have we been today?
We shall bring to each lonely life a smile,
But what have we brought today?
We shall give to truth a grander birth,
And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
We shall feed the hungering souls of earth,
But whom have we fed today?

We shall reap such joys in the by and by,
But what have we sown today?
We shall build us mansions in the sky,
But what have we built today?
‘Tis sweet in the idle dreams to bask;
But here and now, do we our task?
Yet this is the thing our souls must ask,
What have we done today?

This Sunday morning we will continues in our series entitled, “Seven Steps Out of a Rut” with Step #1 – Take Responsibility for Your Life. Our text is Mark 10:46-52. Bartimaeus is teaching us how to get out of the rut we’re in. This blind man could have make excuses. He could have played the blame-game. He could have allowed fear to keep him from his goal. He could have allowed his past to determine his future. He didn’t. Let us sit at the feet of this man and allow him to teach us how to get from where we are to where we want to be, to where we need to be in our lives.

On Sunday evening we are looking at 2012 with an open mind for renewal. We are already one week into this new year. What shall we do? We will look to God’s word for guidance as to how to answer this very important question. “We can…We should…We must…”

God has blessed us. He is blessing us. He will bless in the days ahead. May we always trust Him and obey Him. It is a wonderful pleasure and privilege to be your minister, to be a member of the Enola Church of Christ.