New Year’s Reset

There are distinct advantages of celebrating two new years; one Western and the other, the Lunar New Year that fell on Saturday, 10th Feb 2024 ushering the year of the Dragon. I received eight or nine CNY wishes from close friends, most of which were decorated with dragon themes. But do you know that even for Christians a dragon could be a good sign like the introductory passage in the LXX book of Esther that begins with the vision of two dragons, Mordecai and Haman contesting for power and we all know how the story unfolds in the biblical book? As Revelation 12 speaks of a great red dragon representing the devil, we should be careful not to extol dragon-like features or images too much over the course of this year.

But as for me, this CNY gives me time for reset and reflection. It gives me to make or remake my NY’s resolution for 2024 with the dragon year ending at the end of January 2025. This morning I got up real early again thinking within myself “should I stay on in Sabah or move somewhere else?” Given a choice of comfort and familiarity I rather stay even if my sphere of ministry is limited here. There is no place in Sabah that I have not been in the sense that I have gone preaching in more than 130 villages in all from north to south and from east to west. 

Interestingly, ministry for 2023 started from the East in Sandakan on NY’s day and ended in the West Coast of Papar District. I have hardly touched the State of Sarawak and even though I have preached in more than half of the States in West Malaysia, it is mainly virgin territory for me. But I might look farther ahead to the Western world, but literally to the Eastern most country in the world, the land of my spiritual birth, my Bethel.