Wise Men of 2015

(originally published in the Daily Press Religion Section 12-27-14)

While everyone fought over parking for the day after Christmas sales, exchanges and returns, the traditional Christian church calendar began the Twelve Days of Christmas. This ends on January 6, a date known as Epiphany. I hate to burst your Hallmark Christmas bubble, but technically the Wise Men (aka Magi) and their camels don’t even appear in the nativity until Epiphany.

Jesus wasn’t in a manger when the Wise Men arrived. Matthew 2:11 says they went to his “house.”

Most of us will put Santa and Frosty back in the attic before Christmas is officially over and the Wise Men have had time to “traverse afar… following yonder star.”  We’ve even secularized the meaning of the word “epiphany” to include a sudden insight or perception.  Let’s capitalize on this and merge our 2015 resolutions with a personal New Year’s epiphany.

As I progress through my post-graduate work currently researching convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology with the relational self, I am struck by how many people initially seek help from an outside source before first looking within.  

Bookstore shelves are packed with self-help books promising “x” steps to freedom or success.  But “self-help” is actually a misnomer since God says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Let’s just consider the aspect of breathing: “God created man in his own image; male and female he created them…and breathed into [their] nostrils the breath of life, and [they] became living being(s)” (Gen. 1:27; 2:7).  

Whether people acknowledge God or not doesn’t change the fact that our absolute existence depends on him.  This article could not exist without an author. Likewise, our lives could not exist without “the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).

The Bible is the original “self-help” book; but when a wrench has been thrown in your day, are you first prone to go to the phone instead of the throne?  

The psalmist says, “Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind” (Ps 26:2). “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23-24). “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord” (Lam. 3:40). “A man ought to examine himself” (1 Cor. 11:28). “How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin” (Job 13:23).

Since it is impossible to separate out who we are psychologically from who we are spiritually, clearly we need to examine ourselves in light of scripture. Let that be your epiphany and resolution for 2015.

There are times in life (and it is biblical) when we need an outside source to help us see our blind spots or sort through the issues; however any outside source worth your time will include a spiritual examination. Why not be wise men in 2015 and start there yourselves? Just don’t ride off on your camels, though, until January 6.

The Rev. Heidi Summers is affiliated with Freedom in Christ Ministries, is a board certified pastoral counselor, board certified life coach and is currently completing her doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary.