2008 A New Year Full of Promise

The new year 2008 for the skeptics can be just like any year in one's life time. I dare to disagree because I know that every day there are new things that can happen to any person. As a person of faith, I know that this new year has a lot to offer and I have to make the best out of this short life-span.

I'm quite inspired by what the prophet Isaiah said during the recovery years in Israel after captivity in Babylon:


"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up;
do you not perceive it?
I am doing a new way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland..."
(Isaiah 43: 18-19)

The prophet is not suggesting a voluntary historical amnesia. He admonished his people to forget about the past which they can no longer undo. Instead they should focus on the future that is full of promise and hope. The dawning of another year is an opportunity for us to learn from the past and give ourselves a chance to purge ourselves of unbecoming behavior. Also we have to think of better ways to be of service to those in need.

It is important to make a mental review of the past year and weigh the positive aspects of life against the negative ones. This will help us see who we are as human beings in relationships. Oftentimes the negative things we have done predominates in our minds and forgetting the good and the best things that we have done and have been doing. Don't get paranoid with the things you consider unworthy. Nobody is perfect.

"A new way in the desert," is a metaphor of the great possibilities not just for this new year but in life as a whole. I hadn't imagine myself and my wife working abroad, living in a strange land and at the same time guiding and helping migrant workers in their problems and needs. A new way out of the difficult economic situation for migrant workers emerged. But leaving one's home and country is not at all easy. Working in foreign land is not easy. There is always contempt and discrimination of those who does not belong there. Working abroad is a new way in the desert. The desert however is everywhere. The desert like social situation in one's own country pushes people to move out and find a better way to live as human beings. The desert will remain a desert unless human and divine intervention is made. Human society has to create a new way in the desert of deprivation and oppression. Transforming deserts to oasis --an arable land that produces food and provides sustainance to its inhabitants.

I have great hopes for the 2008 not because it is a new year, but rather in God's grace I can be of service to others and use my life, skills and abilities to the utmost so that our world will be better with me and with you around.

Welcome the New Year as you would be welcomed in a friendly home.