I receive a devotional from the Henri Nouwen Society, every morning. Today’s devotional is titled, ‘Freedom is our Goal.’ Most of us are still trying to live into our New Year resolutions or are attempting to make a change in our lives for good. I felt this devotional speaks to it, so I share it with you:  

Well, once again another year has come and gone, and a new year has begun unfolding. Maybe your family has a tradition for ushering in the start of the next calendar. I know my family does. In Alabama, you’re supposed to eat greens, black-eyed peas, and hog jowl (this last one is both a soul food southern delicacy as well as a vegan nightmare). You eat these things in the hopes that they will bring you money, luck, and health in the coming year. I haven’t the faintest idea why, or why the South holds such a tradition. Nor do I know how the tradition started. But you can bet your boots that I was eating greens (not my favorite), black-eyed peas (okay, these I love, I’ll admit), and hog jowl (which is a bit too crunchy for me) on New Year’s Day. And maybe it really is a silly practice, but had I not been able to partake in it, I would have felt like something was missing.
 

What a year 2018 has been! There is so much the world went through. The year was filled with excellent experiences and complicated challenges, but all of them contributed to make us who we are, and for that I am grateful! As a church, our experiences were not different. We experienced successes and challenges. In the past year we...