Eric Butterworth Speaks: Essays on Abundant Living #124
Delivered by Eric Butterworth on January 1, 1976
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Today is January first, and I wish you each and every one a happy new year. Actually, I know that each one of us must find the joy of the New Year within himself. Certainly, a happy new year can never come from a date on a calendar. As a matter of fact fixing January first as the day for the new year was strictly a human action.
The day the new year begins, therefore, exists only in the mind of the person who accepts it. The first of the new year might just as well have been any other day. As a matter of fact, the new year begins any day and every day for us ... this is the first day of the rest of your life, and you can say this on any day of the new year.
January first was chosen back in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was introduced. By the Julian calendar the first day of the new year is January 14th. In the Jewish calendar the new year falls in September, and in Iran the day falls on March 21st. Since New Year's Day is in your mind, actually one should celebrate the beginning of the new year in trying to renew the mind to a new concept, a new awareness, a new level of vision. In one of his epistles to the Corinthians Paul taught us a way to renew our minds when he said,
"Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things pass away; behold they are become new."
Now it is always important to interpolate that Christ here does not mean or refer to Jesus, but rather to the Christ consciousness, an expanded awareness of one's whole being. So if anyone is in this expanded awareness, this cosmic vision, he is a new creature and the old things are past away.
When we permit our thoughts to run away in the muddy channels of material thinking year after year, they grow stale. Our thoughts need renewing; this is the great need at the beginning of the new year. We are more than body and mind; we are also spirit. These three—body, mind, and spirit—are all necessary parts of the complete man. A person is not complete unless he is conscious of his wholeness, of the spirit indwelling him, as well as of his mind and body. Spirit is the rightful leader of his mind and body; spirit is the original and permanent part of every person; spirit is that of you that is created in the image and likeness of God. It is fitting that those whose aspirations for a larger life include in their new year's celebration a quiet period devoted to a renewing of the mind and body by realizing the indwelling Christ, by realizing one's wholeness as a spiritual being. So why not start on the road to becoming a new person this very New Year's Day. Help the God activity within you to manifest and find releasement in your mind, body and affairs.
Certainly, most of the troubles that beset man and the world are caused by the stubbornnesss and the willfulness and the inability of people to change. If we want to have dominion, we must rise in our spiritual strength above these things by looking for the trouble within ourselves, not condemning ourselves, but trying to find out where we are falling short, praying for the guidance to improve ourselves. "The Father that is within me is greater that the me who is in the world." In this way, using prayer, we shall make it possible for conditions to right themselves under divine law; at least we will be a channel for the expression of the right action, It is lack of compliance with law that makes life difficult.
When the divine law is operating freely in our affairs, then everything is well, but it cannot operate in this way unless we are willing to let it do so without interference. If we have made a mistake, we must be willing to acknowledge it. If we have not, but are faced with a bad situation, we must be willing to be shown how to bring some good out of it with the help of the flow of the divine process within us. Whenever we act with ill will, with animosity, with stubbornness, we seldom get ahead very fast. When we are unchanging and unforgiving, we are like a car that runs off the side of the road causing one wheel to fall into a rut. The road we left is smooth, and if we stayed on it, we wouldn't be in that rut. The smooth road represents the divine law, and the ruts at the side represent the grooves of stubborn, willful atti-
tudes of mind. So let's keep our eyes on the smooth divine way of peace and harmony so that we may be able to celebrate the new year royally and happily, not only today but everyday in the coming months. Let us work with the divine law instead of opposing it; let us not allow our personal feelings to get off the divine track; let us keep ourselves in tune.
Now, it seems human that at every milestone of life we look back over the way we have come. It is very human then to look back over the past year. Sometimes, we say, "Oh if only I could go back and do it all over again." But I say, "Regret not the past! Just determine to profit in the future from the experiences of the past. Take the attitude that the way ahead offers you more than the way that has just been closed behind you. Do not bewail the lost opportunities of yesterday so bitterly that you pass by the opportunities of today...we might miss them if we are stuck in the rut of the past. The new path, the new day, the new year are not meant for lamentations and regrets; we are to go on in faith and with courage, making the most of every hour, the best of every day, remembering as someone put it, "That we pass this way but once."
Let's start out this new year as if there were no such thing as failure. We can forget hate, fear, doubt, selfishness, and intolerance. Forget them as completely as the Prophet says, "God forgets our sins; though scarlet they may be, we shall be seen as white as snow." So as we turn away from the closed gate of yesteryear, let us take no regrets with us, but only hope and faith and encouragement. Amost every person pauses for a moment on the first day of the new year to get rid of the past and to plan for the future.
Some where in this new year, I hope that we may all come upon the great thing that our life was meant for. As we enter this day, this new year, let's make some preparation for success in it. Let's throw out the rubbish, and cleanse and purify ourselves. Let us arrange our graces and abilities to the best of their advantage. This year let us use our talents; let us determine to accomplish more than we have every accomplished in the past. This year let's free ourselves from our old bad habits and hampering thoughts of negative attitudes. Instead of worrying life away, every positive thought adds to the zest of living. Bad dreams cease to exist, the right perspective, the true vision is gained, the light of success, contentment, and blessings shine on life's way, and all shadows of doubt, distrust, and disappointment are gone.
This new year holds tremendous blessings for you...it is the first day of the rest of your life. It is the mid-point of eternity—behind you stretch all the long years of the past, and before you are all the potential years of the future. It is an important time. Reach out fearlessly, and begin to accept and to release your blessings. Take inventory of yourself, of your position in life, of your habits of thought, speech and action. If there is anything that you would like to change, check into your mental habits to see which side of the ledger they are posted, the negative or the positive, the undesirable or the desirable. By renewal of your mind, your habits, your actions on the side of good, on the side of constructiveness, ever) aspect of your life can be enhanced. You can eliminate any unpleasantness, inharmony, unsuccess, and establish in their place pleasantness, happiness, harmony and success.
It is God's year; it is a good year, fresh and unused, and the divine flow of love redeems it from failure and futility. Get in tune and keep in tune with the divine process, then press on confidently, courageously, joyfully, and go on with faith and hope, making the most of every hour in this the best year of your life, the midpoint in all eternity.
© 1976, by Eric Butterworth
