{"id":455,"date":"2013-07-19T16:01:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T23:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janejimenez.com\/?p=455"},"modified":"2013-07-19T16:04:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T23:04:37","slug":"lets-renew-the-spirit-of-last-jan-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"LET’S RENEW THE SPIRIT OF LAST JAN. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Globe<\/a>The NEW Millennium, 2000, gave mankind such hope.\u00a0 It suggested a transformation of the world.<\/p>\n

What a joyful day we spent last New Year\u2019s Eve, watching the new millennium unfold like a delicate rose across the planet, one time zone after another.<\/p>\n

Newscasters, cameras and ceremonies around the globe all synchronized to show us the magic of midnight revelry in Spain, Germany, and Brazil<\/p>\n

We called our daughter in Madrid, Spain, \u201cHappy New Year!\u201d\u00a0 With phone in hand, and our television popping fireworks, we exclaimed, \u201cWe see you!\u00a0 It\u2019s midnight in Madrid, and we see the fireworks.\u00a0 It\u2019s beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was<\/i> <\/b>beautiful, January 1, 2000.\u00a0 Instead of \u00a0the long-anticipated worldwide calamity, God seemed to show us, in one long-lived day, what humanity is capable of at its best.<\/p>\n

What I wouldn\u2019t give for January 1, 2001, to ring in the same beauty.\u00a0 But once again, we humans are focused on the wrong thing. In the year 2001, there is that untidy little digit, the \u201cone.\u201d\u00a0 It gives an edge, a point to the rounded thousand.\u00a0 What is there to celebrate, we ask, when 2001 is just another year?<\/p>\n

Eventually, truth sinks in.\u00a0 We will add digit upon digit, one year at a time, a collection of years without worldwide significance.<\/p>\n

Uninspiring numbers 2016, 2256, 2891.\u00a0 One thousand of them, marching on endlessly, centuries filled with insignificant years.\u00a0 Each year will melt into the next, one after one after one,\u2026a thousand times before mankind again feels a compelling desire to reflect on his place in the world, of man\u2019s effect on mankind.<\/p>\n

We should have learned a millennium-sized lesson on January 1, 2000.\u00a0 For that one hopeful day in the life of\u00a0 planet earth, we focused on the beauty of a new sunrise and our fellow man with whom we share such beauty.\u00a0 Sadly, a sunrise lasts only minutes.\u00a0 Reassured that impending disasters and world destruction were no longer possible, life quickly returned to normal.<\/p>\n

The mid-east is a land divided where people come both to worship and to kill.\u00a0 In the United States of America, we sought to perfect ways of counting ballots to grab an election.\u00a0 The ozone layer continues to recede.\u00a0 Deforesting moves at an ever expanding pace.\u00a0 And we still bury number six plastic in Arizona landfills because recycling is not a priority.<\/p>\n

The New Millennium has become just another millennium.\u00a0 Worn-out and over-rated.\u00a0 Is it little wonder?\u00a0 We wanted to change the world without realizing the need to change the human heart.<\/p>\n

World change is in the little things.\u00a0 Each day is renewal, even though we approach it as the same \"Globe<\/a>old thing.\u00a0 We want to see change in the big things.\u00a0 We want to bring the environment back in order, feed every starving person, and bring world peace.\u00a0 Our eyes are on the big things.<\/p>\n

Environment.\u00a0 Recycling.\u00a0 These are in the little thing: the Styrofoam cup.\u00a0 Taking a stand for the environment is easy.\u00a0 Trying to get a cup of coffee to go without using one more Styrofoam cup isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

World Peace.\u00a0 Ban the bomb.\u00a0 But, looking at my own family, how many feuds and bitter words are responsible for people refusing to talk with each other?\u00a0 How easy to write a letter, make a phone call, meet for coffee.\u00a0 How easy to listen to each other, to extend compassion, to admit our own offenses.<\/p>\n

Mother Teresa said world peace begins at home.\u00a0 Nearly everything else begins at home, too.\u00a0 In the little things.<\/p>\n

We wanted to pack all of our human hope into one year, 2000.\u00a0 We wanted it to bring a New Millennium.\u00a0 But do we want the new millennium to grow out of old habits?\u00a0 We must remember that a millennium comes to us one decade, one year, one week, one minute at a time.\u00a0 We are each individually responsible for a lifetime of decisions.\u00a0 We want big change.\u00a0 But do we want to take little steps?<\/p>\n

The coming year is no less important than the year 2000.<\/p>\n

Preparing for 2001, we must exhort one another anew.\u00a0 Each day we are given a chance to make perfection, to bind up wounds, to give rather than to receive.\u00a0 The words of Jesus are no less true today than when He spoke them, \u201cFor out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.\u00a0 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.\u201d\u00a0 [Mat 12:34-35, NIV]<\/p>\n

If we truly paid attention on January 1, 2000, we caught a glimpse of what we could make of this world.\u00a0 We saw the reality of bringing good things out of the good stored up in us.<\/p>\n

And that hopeful vision alone should turn our hearts to the tremendous possibilities ahead in a new year\u2026a new day\u2014in each new minute in time.\u00a0\u00a0 \"End<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NEW Millennium, 2000, gave mankind such hope.\u00a0 It suggested a transformation of the world. What a joyful day we spent last New Year\u2019s Eve, watching the new millennium unfold like a delicate rose across the planet, one time zone after another. Newscasters, cameras and ceremonies around the globe all synchronized to show us the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-and-that"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459,"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janejimenez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}