New Year's Renewal Message: INUTILIA TRUNCAT!
It is evident that 2020 has brought many changes and hardships to the whole world.
And it looks like 2021 may bring more uncertainty than hope.
How can we navigate into the NEW YEAR?
I am reminded of a phrase I learned in Literature class: INUTILIA TRUNCAT.
Inutilia truncat (Latin) means "cut that which is useless," as in cutting off useless leaves and branches.
But why should we do it, and how does that apply to our daily lives in the New Year?
Why? Because the essential is what brings and keeps life. And the unessential stands in the way of life.
But first, we must determine what is 'useful' and what is 'useless'!
(We must have the ability to discern one from the other).
Thus, these questions remain:
What is essential? (And what is not?)
I will illustrate my answer with two pictures of my "Euphorbia Pulcherrima," aka Poinsettia:
Like plants, we must also be pruned of all that detracts from our essential, vital nourishment so that we may blossom and bear fruit.
In the New Year, what are we willing to cut off to allow for a more abundant life and growth?
What will our priorities be? How can we have the discernment to figure it out?
I humbly suggest that we reexamine ourselves and our lives in their interrelated aspects and dimensions, past and present:
Personal (physical health)
Interpersonal (relationships)
Emotional (experiences)
Spiritual (beliefs)
In the face of the past and present realities, what is holding us back from experiencing abundant life in the New Year?
To achieve the daunting task of seeking self-renewal, we need a few tools:
1. A mirror (to honestly look at ourselves inside and out).
2. Pen and paper (to list the positives and negatives we see).
3. A Bible (to read what the Creator of the Universe wants us to see and to know: past, present, and future).
4. Courage (to make the changes necessary to renew ourselves and recreate our lives).
5. The ultimate realization that, as a plant's nourishment comes from the ground through the roots, our nourishment comes from our Creator.
My Friends, come what may in the New Year, this is the message and the exhortation we need:
"INUTILIA TRUNCAT" ("cut that which is useless")!
The energy to accomplish it can be simply found in the wisdom of God's Word.
The energy and life whose source is the only true God: the great I AM. The Gardener.
The God who has given us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, whose blood is the sap which can truly nourish us - if we abide in Him.
John 15:1-17 (New American Standard Bible)
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love.
11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
17 This I command you, that you love one another."
