Garth George: A time to reflect on faith

As we prepare to say goodbye to an expired year and hello to a new one, I feel an uneasy sense of surprise that this one has disappeared so quickly.

It seems that only a week or so ago I woke up to 2005; and only a month or so ago that I was writing a column welcoming the new millennium.

Perhaps this is a byproduct of advancing age, this concept of time compressed, or of it flying by at an astonishing speed; the feeling that I'm always half a step behind; the stray thought that the sands in the hourglass of my life are running more and more quickly - after all, at midnight on Sunday we will begin the second half of the first decade of the third millennium.

I'm sure it wasn't like that in my childhood. The school year seemed to stretch interminably, yet the summer holidays - the happiest days of my life - seemed to go on and on, too. Christmases and New Years seemed a long, long way apart.

So, I well remember in those days of 10 horsepower cars and interminable miles of gravel roads, did the starting point of that summer holiday (Invercargill) and the destination (near Clyde, in Central Otago).

But all that aside, as one year draws to a close and a new one is about to begin, I suppose we should reflect on the passing one and begin to wonder about the next.

Not that there's any profit in it. What is past is past and while it might be able to be modified, it certainly can't be undone. What is to come remains hidden to us mere mortals and is known only to God, who sees the beginning and the end of all things.

Which is a very good reason to stay under his protection and care and to pray daily as he taught us, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" or, if you prefer (which I don't) the modern version, "Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil". And never forgetting, "Give us this day our daily bread ..."

It's a very good reason, too, to live one day at a time, even, sometimes, one minute at a time. For all we have is now - the rest is either history or mystery. I could be dead before I finish writing this column, or before it's published, or tomorrow or next week, so what's the point in worrying?

In any case, God knows I have enough trouble coping with today without fizzing about past foul-ups or scheming future ones. Sure, like everybody I make plans. But I don't try to live them today.

Having made them I simply do what I can today to see that they come to fruition - or don't, as the case may be. If they do, that's great; if they don't that's okay, too. There'll be something else to do instead.

God is in control and the world is unfolding as it should, not always to my liking and generally beyond my understanding. But that's okay, too. It's a thing called faith, which the writer to the Hebrews defined so beautifully as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". Lovely, that.

Then there's hope - and hope in God is the only hope I've ever found worth having. He has never, ever let me down, although I've accused him of it a few times . Which is pretty foolish and utterly futile: if my hope is in him, then eventually it must be fulfilled.

What a sad old world it would be without hope (which is not the same as desire). No doubt each and every one of us will awaken on Sunday morning consciously or unconsciously hoping for something from the New Year. For a few - like the bosses and employees of the BNZ Bank - it will be as trivial and mundane as hoping to snare a few new customers; for many it will be the selfish hope of more money, fame, sex, achievement, security or whatever; but for some it will be the hope of a better world.

These last are the people who are likely to transform hope into love by trying to make a difference in 2006. I thank God for each and every one of them, be they Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, crystal-gazer, stargazer, navel-gazer, sun worshipper, agnostic or atheist.

For there are never enough people in the world who can see beyond self, who can see the big picture and who can as a result do what they are able to improve the lot of mankind, too many of whom - in this country and elsewhere - are suffering war, deprivation, hardship, sickness and terror beyond our most frightful nightmares.

Thus, my prayer for the New Year is that all those whose hope leads them selflessly to serve, in small ways and large, their fellow men and women, near and far, will succeed in their endeavours and help to alleviate suffering wherever it might be found.