By Robin G. Jordan
I headed to bed a few minutes short of the stroke of
midnight last night. I had not fallen asleep when the New Year arrived in Murray,
Kentucky. My neighborhood was strangely quiet. No firecrackers. No bottle
rockets. Nothing like how my neighbors have celebrated the arrival of the New
Year in years past—particularly my neighbors on the next street.
Kentucky has a lot of unemployment. This may explain the
lack of revelry at the arrival of the New Year. For many people their prospects
do not look any better in 2014 than they were in 2013.
I suspect that most of my neighbors had gone to bed like
myself.
The one exception was my neighbor in the house next door. He
and his wife are Muslim. He comes and goes all hours of the night. We have a
mosque in Murray and the local Muslim community observes formal prayers five
times each day—Fajr (pre-dawn), Dhuhr (noon), 'Asr (afternoon), Maghrib
(sunset), and 'Isha (evening). The
more devote may perform the Tahajjud,
or Salatul Layl—the late night
prayer.
Earlier in the evening I heard what sounded like the thud of
mortar fire in the subdivision across the highway from my neighborhood. It was
a reminder that violence and bloodshed marked the arrival of the New Year
elsewhere in the world.
In reflecting upon the New Year, I do not believe that 2014
will differ from previous years. Whatever happens here in the United States and
in other parts of the world, people are going to need Jesus Christ. If we are
Christians, we have a mission. We are called to live and share the good news of
Jesus Christ. Those who believe we are called to disciple.
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