Happy New Year

Christianity has made more people genuinely happy than any other creed, cause, religion, myth, ideology or scientific achievement, even though–or rather precisely because–happiness in this life is decidedly not the goal of Christian faith. Indeed, nothing is more antithetical to genuine happiness than the determined, lifelong effort to achieve it by one’s own efforts. Even when the outcome of such efforts bears a certain resemblance to happiness, it is one for which there is no one to thank, save perhaps a few who might have played supportive roles in the otherwise solo drama. To invoke an old adage: even if one gets to the top of the ladder,  he may well discover that it’s leaning on the wrong wall, but also, to extend the metaphor, because it was a one-man ladder. That’s when, by the grace of God, the adventure of Christian faith can begin afresh. It is in that spirit that we wish you a happy new year, a year made new by a rejuvenated effort to become more worthy of the blessings we have received through no merit of our own.

Happy New Year,

Gil Bailie