I have come to appreciate annual cycles.  The church calendar and school calendar are firmly lodged into my life rhythms.  Both of these offer periods of engagement and rest, holy days and extended stretches of ordinary time.     

And there is the calendar year.  Our (mostly) annual trip to Kansas for Christmas and New Years serves as a reset.  The year to come is as wide open and spacious as that landscape.  Resolutions are hit or miss for me, but I regularly feel a new year’s nudge – or shove – toward increased intentionality in where I direct my energy and time.

January offers another such gift.  Today is the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr, and Monday is a national holiday dedicated to his legacy.  Every year I try to accept this as an invitation to re-ask what it means to be Christian in America.  In preparing for the upcoming Sunday school class “Undoing Conquest: Rethinking Joshua and the Promised Land,” I’ve been reminded how King chose to use the imagery of the promised land to point not toward military conquest but the nonviolent Beloved Community.  Every tradition has its stories and imagery that can be used to justify or reject domination. 

This January offers a bonus gift to start the year.  On Saturday Jacqui Hoke will be leading our Winter Seminar, focused on life purpose, calling, vocation, intention, and similar ideas.  Where and how to direct our life-energy is a perennial question.  The new calendar year is a good time to revisit it. 

It’s not too late to set some intentions for this new year.  Being part of a beloved community of shared intentionality helps.

Joel