Turn the page

As we sit here in the fresh days of a new year, I’m thinking about the various ways that we might use the phrase, “turn the page.” If we’ve said something unwise or done something hurtful, we may have to work through a process of apology and restitution in hopes that we might “turn the page” and put the past behind us. If we’re in the middle of a captivating story – literally or literarily – we “turn the page” with spellbound excitement. And, sometimes we simply “turn the page” because whether we are enjoying it or suffering through it, life has a way of moving on. 

Now, we turn the page from 2019 to 2020. For some, it is a welcomed chance to begin anew, to put the pain and struggles of the past year into the history books and chart a new direction. For some, it is a bit more dreadful, because the familiarity of the past is less daunting than the unknowing of the future. For some it is both bitter and sweet. And yet, for all of us, the New Year is come. So, what can we expect as we turn the page to 2020? 

I’ve long been skittish about the human capacity for making predictions. I have an easier time tracking trajectories, but predictions – whether they come from biblical scholars, Vegas bookies, meteorologist, or that hyperactive guy with the rolled up shirt sleeves on MSNBC – predictions are guesses one and all. I could tell you what to expect in 2020; you could tell me what to expect in 2020; and neither of us would necessarily be the wiser. 

Instead of a prediction, I lean toward the proverb that was expressed in a poem by Antonio Machado, which reads "se hace camino al andar," or "you make the way as you go."* We will walk in faith, as we always have. We will live into hope, as we always have. We will strive for justice, as we always have. We will listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church, as we always have. And then, at the end of 2020, through our joys and sorrows, accomplishments and setbacks, things gained and things lost, we will say “God’s steadfast love endures forever,” as we always have. 

Come friends, let’s make this way as we go. We’ll go singing, praying, lamenting, rejoicing, and ever believing in God’s faithful love. 

Mark of St. Mark

* Antonio Machado, Selected Poems, trans. Alan S. Trueblood (Cambridge: Har­vard University Press, 1 982), p. 143.