HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last year, at a whopping speed of 67 thousand miles per hour, you traveled over 92 million miles in your trip around the sun. It’s been quite a journey. 

As we begin 2023, I have a question- who is at the center of your universe:  you or Jesus?

If you’re anything like me, life revolves more around you and your agenda than Jesus and His agenda. 

Perhaps it’s time for a wake-up call from the archives of astronomy. 

Hundreds of years ago, astronomer Nicolas Copernicus proved that the sun, not the Earth, was at the center of the solar system. This may not be a big deal to us, but back in his day, this revolutionized the understanding of the universe.  

In a similar way, many of us need to experience a Copernican-like revolution in our lives. 

We are not the center of the universe. Jesus is. 

Paul makes this abundantly clear in Colossians 1. Jesus created “all things,” and in Him, all things “hold together.” (v. 16,17). His resurrection from the dead proves that in everything, He has “supremacy” (Colossians 1:18). 

Translation? Jesus is Lord, and we are not. He is the King of the cosmos. 

We have a hard time internalizing the reality of what Paul is saying because society inundates us with messages that you and I are the center of the attention, the star of the show.

When we believe this lie, we center our lives around our circumstances, our activities, our families, our careers, our opinions, etc. Everything is about us. We make ourselves the hub of the wheel, so to speak. Jesus is just another ‘planet’ that orbits the world we’ve created.

This is as silly as pretending that the sun revolves around the Earth.   

However, when we truly understand the full magnitude of who Jesus is, a seismic shift occurs. Everything in our ‘universe’ starts to orbit Him instead of the other way around. 

With Jesus at the center, we are liberated from the exhausting pursuit of making life all about us. We realize that Jesus doesn’t exist to serve our purposes; we exist to serve His. As a result, we can take ourselves off the throne and enthrone Jesus as Lord. Life becomes about making much of His name instead of getting Him to make much of ours. 

So…as you begin this year’s trip around the sun, what’s it gonna be? Will you or Jesus be at the center of your life?

(Heads up. It’s very easy to drift back into the mindset that life is all about us. You’ll need to revisit this question throughout the year to do some realigning.)  

Resolve right now to keep Jesus at the center of your universe. 

When you do, the Son will be in His proper place. 

And ole Mr. Copernicus will be very proud indeed.  

Written by Jonathan Munson, Executive Director, RFTH