New Years Day - 2026

From the Land of In Between to "Go and Make"

Happy New Year's Day morning!

I remember back nearly forty years ago, when I lived on Lombard Street in San Francisco, I would wake up on New Years mornings to the sounds of street sweepers clearing away the multicolor confetti that adorned the roads and cars and telephone wires… the old year was swept out the back door and the uncertainty of the next year came creeping in on the fog across the bay. (I had an incredible view of the Golden Gate Bridge).

I always enjoy the arrival of a new year. The reflection on the year past and the making of those resolutions that quickly become but "a good start!"

But this morning, I'm thinking about a different kind of "in between" - the spiritual searching I was doing during those San Francisco years.

I believed in "something" and was desperately trying to figure out who was right about God. Buddha, Taoism, Vedanta, you name it - it was all there in that spiritually hungry city, and I was exploring it all. I was raised Christian and baptized at 13, but I left Christianity because of the “hypocrisy” I saw by church leadership.

I was what Flannery O'Connor called "Christ-haunted" - carrying this cultural memory of Christianity but searching everywhere else for the transforming reality. I knew there was something missing, but I was looking in all the wrong places.

What I needed wasn't someone to give me more options to explore. I needed someone to show me that Jesus was the answer I'd been searching for all along.

Someone to demonstrate that all my spiritual seeking was actually my heart crying out for the relationship Jesus offers. Someone to help me see that I didn't need to keep searching - I needed to come home.

But here's what troubles me as I reflect on that season: I was far from the only one spiritually adrift.

Charles Taylor, in his massive work A Secular Age, captures what happened to our culture perfectly. He describes how we moved from a society in which belief in God was virtually unchallenged to one in which faith is just one option among many.

As Taylor puts it: "Why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say, 1500 in our Western society, while in 2000 many of us find this not only easy, but even inescapable?"

This cultural shift created what we see today - people who are spiritually hungry but looking everywhere except toward Jesus. Even now, decades later, I see the same confusion everywhere - including, if I'm honest, in our churches.

Dean Inserra calls this the age of "Unsaved Christians" - people who describe themselves as "Mainstream Cultural Christians" who "aren't wrapped up in promoting some kind of gospel message. They are simply trying to be nice to others, pursue their idea of personal happiness, pray when something bad happens, and rest in the belief that they are going to heaven after they die."

Inserra cites studies that show that while 80% of US adults believe in God, only 56% believe in God as described in the Bible. We're surrounded by people who claim to love Jesus while worshiping a god that requires no sacrifice, no obedience, no surrender.

How did we get here? How did so many settle for what I call a "Convenient Jesus" - all the cultural benefits of Christianity without allowing Jesus to actually rearrange their lives?

The truth is, whether you're searching through Eastern philosophy in San Francisco or sitting comfortably in a church pew, you can still be spiritually homeless.

You can be Christ-haunted without being Christ-centered. You can celebrate Jesus without actually knowing Him.

That's what I'm thinking about as we start 2026.

How many people in our community - maybe even in our church - are living in their own version of spiritual searching? Not hostile to Jesus, but not really connected to Him either. Some are actively seeking, like I was. Others have settled into a comfortable spiritual routine that never quite transforms their daily life.

My resolution this year isn't complicated: I want to be the person I needed during my San Francisco season - and the person so many still need today.

Not someone who judges their searching or their settling, but someone who gently points them home to Jesus. Not someone who adds to their confusion with more religious activities, but someone who shows them that their seeking heart - or even their comfortable complacency - is exactly what Jesus wants to transform.

This year, I'm committed to meeting people exactly where they are - whether they're desperately searching or quietly settling - and lovingly pointing them toward the abundant life that only Jesus offers.

Who will join me?

Abba,
As we begin this new year, give us hearts that burn for those who are spiritually searching and settling. Help us be the church that lovingly points our community home to Jesus. Make us faithful witnesses of Your abundant life.

In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Rev. D!
"1/168 is not enough"

Note: For those of you looking for the daily blog, the next one will start on Monday. My series will take us through ten weeks of the Epiphany season.