My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 is to take one step at a time. I hope you will join me on my journey.
January 1, 2016
Day one, step one: Follow those who have gone before.
In my observation and experience, those who follow
successfully become everything God made them be.
I would like to become a part of that parade.
O my soul, bless God.
From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
don’t forget a single blessing![1]
From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
don’t forget a single blessing![1]
Bless: to praise and glorify[2]
Blessing: help and approval from God[3]
Since childhood, an
important part of New Year’s Day is watching the Rose Bowl Parade. Floats made
of flower petals and marching bands from across the country.
One of the things for which I bless God is the blessing of
marching in parades as part of junior high, high school, and college bands. To
be an active component of the group, one
needed to step off on the same foot as everyone else, and then stay
rhythmically in step with everyone else be it forty, ninety or three hundred.
Not only remaining “in step“ but also “in line.”
A well-practiced marching
band is made of straight lines from front to back and from side to side. Staying
in step means awareness of those before you from beginning to the person
directly in front of you. Keeping a row requires using one’s peripheral vision
to maintain a straight line from curb to curb. When marching perfectly
in line and row, with precise distance in each direction, the lines also create
perfect diagonals. A thing of geometric symmetry and beauty.
Walk out of the gates. Get going!
Get the road ready for the people.
Build the highway. Get at it!
Clear the debris,
hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world:
“Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes,
Ready to do what he said he’d do,
prepared to complete what he promised.’”[4]
Get the road ready for the people.
Build the highway. Get at it!
Clear the debris,
hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world:
“Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes,
Ready to do what he said he’d do,
prepared to complete what he promised.’”[4]
A parade has an exact
and designated path. The floats and bands are staged and move out in such a manner as to keep the procession moving past those who line the
streets from beginning to end. Being a part of the
cavalcade not only means marching in a band that follows the drum major,
but also being a part of a larger procession designed to not only to bless God but also to bless others by simply
taking one’s place. Just marching step by step
into the New Year and all it holds in store.
Lord, I praise you, I
honor and glorify your holy name. Thank you for your help already waiting for me in the New
Year. Help me know my place in the parade. Let me follow those who have served
you, not because of individual abilities
and gifts, but because they learned to be a part of the blessed and perfect band. Those in the scripture who are unnamed,
but crossed the Reed Sea on dry land because they trusted you. Those who
marched around Jericho, working together to complete your purpose. Help me walk
beside those who follow your Son, not because of what he can do, but because of
who he was, and is, and evermore shall be. Help me feel the rhythm, look
straight ahead, use my peripheral vision, and move forward with a precisely
consistent measured step. Help me step out and be a part of your parade.
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