We didn´t make New Years resolutions this year. Sure, we have ambitions for 2012...like doing a camp for our Kidsfest kids, starting a small group for teens, successfully finishing 2 more semesters of college, getting a German driver´s license....But we didn´t sit down and make resolutions. Resolutions, like drinking more water or getting up early to run before work are meant to be broken after a few weeks, anyway.
Instead, we looked back. 2011 was our first full (calendar) year being married. In 2011, I (Michelle) passed my German language exam allowing me to stay in the country, got 2 teaching jobs, and have stopped having headaches after church from strenuously translating the sermon. Daniel passed 2 semesters of college exams with flying colors, and we both went to our first concert as a couple when Switchfoot was playing in Cologne.
But not everything that happened in 2011 was positive. Around the time of the concert, one of the teens that normally comes to our youth cafe was killed. He was hit by a train. Some of his friends think it was because of drug use, but no one knows for sure.
It hit us really hard. Not because we were particularly close to this guy, but because the whole thing was so fast and premature. One week, I talked to him down the block from our apartment about his upcoming birthday plans, and the next week he was gone. And it was so final.
Sometimes it feels like the time we have is limitless. As staff at the youth cafe, we think our teens will always come back. If they don´t want us to talk about God or pray with them, then we always have next week. And it´s often hard to talk straight to people about heaven and hell and the consequences of their decisions because we fear it sounds old fashioned. Like Jonathan Edwards and his "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon that portrays human souls dangling on the thread over the flames of hell.
And so we don´t even mention hell. Or express the urgency the Gospel calls for. We´re afraid people will think we´re using a scare tactic to lure them to Christianity.
Until something wakes us up. Someone dies and you realize the time you had to reach out to them was not limitless. And you imagine what their soul is experiencing right now. And you start playing the "What if I had only said..." game and wish you could turn back time.
And something inside changes. Every encounter becomes urgent because you can´t shake the idea that everyone will someday come face-to-face with God.
This is the reality we want to take into 2012. The Gospel is THE great news. And each day is not a given, but an opportunity to share.
