KEY POINTS:
As another year ticks towards its close it is a time, I suppose, when we should be counting our blessings - and heaven knows as New Zealanders we have enough of them.
We live in a free (well, relatively) country which is, thank God, inconveniently positioned at the bottom of the world, well away from the Middle East and Africa and other places where nasty people do nasty things to one another year after year.
On the surface we enjoy the benefits of living in a democratic society, except it hasn't been truly democratic since we were conned into the MMP electoral system.
We complain about the weather, yet we live in one of the world's most benign and healthy climates - alleged changes notwithstanding - not subject to the ferocious extremes of heat or cold, wet or dry, that other people have to put up with.
We still have plenty of wide open spaces into which a man can disappear if he is of a mind to and renew himself physically and spiritually.
The South Island - in particular the alpine region, Central Otago, the Lakes District, Westland and Fiordland, with their endless vistas, their pure and crystal-clear air - is guaranteed to restore even the most frazzled soul.
On the surface, too, we appear to be prosperous, and indeed many of us are. We want for nothing, although if credit card debt is any indication, far too many of us want far too much.
The bad news is that we are overtaxed and overcharged for local and national government services on an unprecedented scale. This blatant thievery continues even though the perennial problems of poverty, inadequate health services, the abuse of children and inequitable welfare entitlements remain with us.
The prison system is in total disarray; our armed services and police remain understaffed; the education system is turning out illiterates and innumerates; and our infrastructure continues to deteriorate in spite of all the money thrown at it - always too little, too late.
I suppose, too, that in the days left one should reflect on the passing year and begin to wonder about the next one.
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 from us mere mortals and is known only to God, who sees the beginning and the end of all things.
Which is a 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". Not forgetting, either, "Give us this day our daily bread ..."
It's a very good reason, too, to live one day at a time, for all we have is now - all 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 Tuesday, 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 worth having. He has never, ever let me down (though I've accused him of it a few times, I must admit).
One might hope, for instance, for a return to the acceptance of personal responsibility, which alone would go far towards solving our most serious and persistent social problems.
One might hope that more and more people would become aware of that fundamental principle of living that says, "If there's something wrong, then it's wrong with me", and its associated dictum, "Live and let live".
Just imagine what might happen if even a few of us began to take full responsibility for our own actions, attitudes and behaviour, if we stopped blaming others and gave up dumping our anger, resentment, selfishness and bitterness on our wives, families, neighbours, bosses, workmates - even the Government.
And if we all conceded to our innermost selves that every person is entitled to be what he or she is, irrespective of how much we might disagree or dislike whatever that is ...
It remains for me to extend felicitations for the New Year to the good people of Blenheim, in whose delightful village my wife and I spent a week just before Christmas - particularly to those who, every time we bought a cup of coffee in a cafe, placed a Jaffa on the teaspoon in the saucer.
