new for old?

didn't we learn from the Aladdin story that it was in the old lamp that the genie resided? & it was the evil uncle who tried to exchange Aladdin's old lamp for new?

so, we stand at the threshold of a new year, & by convention, bidding farewell to 2008 while hoping & wishing that the outlook for the NEW year would be better or brighter. will it? certainly not if we were to believe the economic naysayers. read here and here

that we have made enormous scientific progress is not in doubt, but has human life made the corresponding improvement? people still suffer illnesses & die. medical science has prolonged our lives & devised new treatments for many common ailments but life still has a beginning & ending. hence, January is named after the Roman god of beginnings & endings.

BUT no science known to man has been able to decrease the amount of greed, anger, jealousy or cruelty to the world.

older isn't always worse, but newer, improved or advanced aren't always better either. find out what has gone before & compare the new to the old. & if the new seems like shallow attempts to be hip or relevant, stay with the ancient path that believers have walked for millenia.

This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls."
Jer 6:16

blessed year ahead, one & all!!

**image** Roman bust of Janus, Vatican Museums