Each year, over 1 billion eyes from all over the world are focused on the sparkling Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. At 11:59 p.m., the Ball begins its descent as millions of voices unite to count down the final seconds of the year, and celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes and dreams.
The Ball is a geodesic sphere, 12 feet in diameter and weighing almost 12,000 pounds, built to withstand the stresses of weather conditions to brightly shine over 400 feet above Times Square. For 2011, Waterford Crystal has designed 288 new “Let There Be Love” crystal triangles. Last year’s 288 triangles represented “Let There Be Courage” and 1,152 triangles sparkle with the "Let There Be Joy" design. The remaining 960 triangles represent the original "Let There Be Light" design. This ball is known as the “Star of Hope.”
It is a beautiful thing to watch at midnight in New York. Over a million people gather there each year no matter what the temperature outside or what the weather conditions might be. It’s beautiful on television and I can’t imagine how beautiful it is in person.
And if you are there in person and are so inclined, you can make a wish at the New Year’s Wishing Wall (sounds like a modern day Jerusalem Temple Wailing Wall.) You’ll write it on an official piece of New Year’s Eve confetti. All wishes will be collected and added to the 2000 pounds of confetti that flutters down at midnight onto the crowd gathered in Times Square in celebration of the New Year.
So the Time’s Square Crystal Ball represents lots of wishes, love, courage, joy, light and overall hope. But love, courage, joy, light and hope is not found in wishes or in a crystal ball. The world may be looking up to find them there, but Solomon tells us otherwise and I believe this is something we should think about as we anticipate the upcoming New Year.
King Solomon, King David’s son wrote his proverbs somewhere between 900 years and 1000 years before the birth of Christ. Perhaps some may have been written even before that. They pull together the most important 513 of the over 3000 proverbs he wrote. Proverbs means “To Be Like.” Proverbs are simple, moral statements that teach fundamental realities about life. In the beginning of his reign as King over Israel, he sought wisdom from God, the only source of true wisdom. He offered these sayings to help us contemplate the fear (love, reverence and respect) of God, living by God’s wisdom, and finding the sum of this wisdom through a relationship in Jesus Christ.
Let’s read this one Proverb together, Proverbs chapter 17 verse 24: “Wisdom is in the presence of the one who has understanding, But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.” The translation known as “The Message” says it this way: The perceptive find wisdom in their own front yard; fools look for it everywhere but right here.
Proverbs 24 is saying that the wise man has a powerful future waiting for him because he keeps his eyes on wisdom. By contrast, the fool has his eyes on something else… his eyes are on the ends of the earth.
Let’s start by looking at foolish men and women. They are always searching the earth for the newest remedy, quick fix or the latest and greatest in most anything. I read of a story about a man picking strawberries in a strawberry patch. This man would pick a strawberry here… and then he’d look up and see another strawberry a couple of rows away and off he’d run to pick that berry. Then he would look up and see another berry a few plants away and off he’d go, again and again and again all across the patch. In the time it took him to fill one bucket others could fill ten.
His eyes were always wandering across the field looking for the easiest berries to find. And the fool is like that… he’s always looking for the easiest berry in the patch. He’s always seeking an easy way to get ahead in his life.
He’s the guy who invests in the future by buying lottery tickets.
He can’t keep a job because no job is good enough.
He can’t stay in one church, because no church is good enough.
There is always a rainbow waiting for them over the next hill. Their eyes wander constantly to the ends of the earth. They are constantly comparing themselves, their families, their jobs, and their potential to something else or to someone else. And they are never satisfied; they can’t find satisfaction in anything. And in the end, they have done less with their lives than they could have.
By contrast, the wise men and woman have two advantages over the fool. First they are focused on what is most important in life; Wisdom from God. Trust in God and Faith in God. In God we find everything we need, love, joy, peace, hope and even courage when we face adversity.
The second advantage wise men and women have over the fool is that we know where to look for wisdom. Where did Solomon get his wisdom? He asked God - because true wisdom can only come from God.
James 1:5 says “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
There are many places we can find knowledge and information. And increased knowledge is useful, but it is based on man’s education and experience. The more knowledge we acquire and the more information we gather will certainly make us smarter, and that’s a good thing. But the smarter we get and the more knowledge we acquire should continue to draw us closer and closer to God who created it all in the first place. The more we study the human body, our anatomy, the inner workings of our cells, our DNA, and future scientific discoveries, will certainly increase our knowledge and lead us to a much better understanding of how we function. But believe me, none of this is or will be a surprise to God. We don’t have to search the earth to find the answers; we only need to search for the answers from God, through Jesus Christ.
The key thing to remember is that – both as individual Christians and as a church – we have access not only to God’s wisdom but also to His power. Our ability to create a great New Year for our lives isn’t limited simply to what we know and can personally do with our lives. God’s power and working in our lives is the single most important advantage we have.
So here are four steps to consider as we anticipate the upcoming New Year:
Step one – Seek God’s wisdom for our lives
Step two – Know God’s wisdom for our lives
Step three – Apply God’s wisdom in our lives
Step Four – Repeat steps one through three
I’ll close with a story about the Biblical Epic Movie “Ben-Hur.” Ben-Hur was created in 1959 and won eleven academy awards. It was the most expensive film to be made at that time and in the theatres the movie was 3 ½ hours long.
One of the most famous scenes in the movie was the climatic chariot race, which required five weeks of filming, 15,000 extras, and eighteen chariots – nine to be used by the stunt crew during practice. The set was built over eighteen acres of land
In the spirit of authenticity, Charlton Heston actually learned to drive the four-horse vehicles. But after weeks of practice, he expressed concern about the final shoot.
He took the stunt coordinator aside and said “I can drive the chariot,” he told stunt coordinator who was directing the scene, “but I’m not sure I can win.”
“Charles, you just make sure you stay in the chariot,” he replied, “and I’ll make sure
you win the race.”
Likewise, God is saying to us: “Just stay in the chariot… and I’ll make sure you win the race.”
