Enjoying the breath

Huw Williams | 20:48, Friday 10 January 2014 | Turin, Italy

I have always felt sorry for January, December must be such a tough act to follow. Another Christmas takes its leave after the long crescendo leading up to it, and we may have just passed mid-Winter but we all know that there's a long way to go before we can hope for the first signs of Spring.

And it might be just me, but Torino seems to take a big breath in early January. Probably Epifania has something to do with it - another bank holiday on January 6th really marks the end of Christmas with another mini-Christmas, meaning that most people are not really in the mood to gird up the loins and get back to work until the second week of January. The new year starts with a bang at midnight on January 1st, but then seems to retreat with a sore head, and tentatively pokes it's nose out into daylight again a good week or more later.

Last year I found it all a little dispiriting, this year I'm trying to roll with the lull (if indeed one can roll with a lull) and use these rather diffident first days of the new year productively in terms of taking a good deep breath myself and preparing for what's ahead. We all know that sooner or later, most of us will hit a patch when we'd gladly enjoy a quieter week or so. And looking at the diary, I can see that some of those periods may be arriving sooner than I had realised, so for now I am glad of the opportunity to think ahead, prepare, try and get organised and enjoy the breath.

Over Christmas I was able to get through more reading than was normal, one of the common themes emerging from that reading was our frequent failure to enjoy God in all the seasons of life. This is certainly a tendency I see in myself - "I will begin to enjoy God more when...", and thus we develop the habit of always looking ahead, and always forgetting to enjoy the journey He is walking with us right now.

However your year has started, and whatever is on the horizon, I do hope that you enjoy God's richest blessings in 2014.