Welcoming the Year of the Horse with Dim Eyes and Feeble Limbs

The Chinese New Year festival, being a spring festival, is naturally celebrated with renewed energy and fresh hope. The cold, dreary winter is behind us. The Year of the Horse symbolically augurs new opportunities, success and prosperity for the year ahead. “Time to blast fire crackers with eager anticipation!” This spirit of optimism is aptly captured in popular New Year greetings:

马到成功 (Mǎ dào chéng gōng): May success arrive as swiftly as a horse (Immediate success).
龙马精神 (Lóng mǎ jīng shén): Full of vigor and spirit like a dragon and horse (Vitality and strength).
一马当先 (Yī mǎ dāng xiān): May you take the lead and set the pace (To be first/forefront).
马上发财 (Mǎ shàng fā cái): May wealth come immediately (Get rich instantly).

However, these greetings and celebrations can evoke nostalgia and quiet melancholy in some older people. They cannot deny the fatigue that accompanies the fading vitality of their advancing years. Scripture captures this poignantly:
Someday the light of the sun and the moon and the stars will all seem dim to you. Rain clouds will remain over your head. Your body will grow feeble, your teeth will decay, and your eyesight fail. – Ecclesiastes 12:2-3 (CEV)

Ironically, the exuberance of New Year festivity may heighten this melancholy for some older folks as they welcome the Year of the Horse with dim eyes. Their hearts resonate with the prayer of the old horse below:

Prayer from the Old Horse

See Lord,
my coat hangs in tatters,
like homespun, old, threadbare.
All that I had of zest,
all my strength,
I have given in hard work
and kept nothing back for myself.
Now
my poor head swings
to offer up all the loneliness of my heart.
Dear God,
stiff on my thickened legs
I stand here before You:
Your unprofitable servant.
Oh! of Your goodness,
give me a gentle death.

Source: Carmen Bernos De Gasztold, Prayers from the Ark.

Meditation
As we enter into the year of the horse, some of you may feel like that faithful old workhorse in Carmen Bernos de Gasztold’s Prayers from the Ark – worn down after years of serving the Lord with all your heart, yet feeling unnoticed. Your spiritual reserves may seem depleted after years of obedience service. You have borne burdens without complaint, and remained faithful even when the joy of service you once knew has faded.

Festive seasons can deepen this loneliness. Prayer feels harder, tinged with quiet disappointment over unanswered hopes. Weariness makes you wonder whether you have failed in your service when compared with Christian leaders who appear confident, productive and influential. After all, is our worth not measured by our achievement and social impact? But this is not how our heavenly Father sees his children.

Thankfully, our heavenly Father does not measure his children by their productivity or visible success. He remembers your love poured out in service, your trust that endures amid uncertainty, and your quiet perseverance even when the excitement of service has waned. Every small step taken with stiffened legs, and every unseen act of obedience, is remembered by him.

For the weary Christian, may I encourage you to rest in God’s grace? Being tired and needing rest is not a weakness. Faith does not mean endless striving; sometimes we best honor God by letting go and allowing his mercies to carry on what we can no longer bear by our own fading strength. Our assurance as believers is that life need not end in exhaustion, but in a gentle rest within God’s goodness.

Prayer

Teach us, Lord,
that rest is not failure,
that weariness is not shame,
that being held is as pleasing to you as being strong.

Do not let us end in despair,
but in a gentle resting in Your mercy –
the deep peace of those who hear at last:
Well done, good and faithful servant.
Come, rest and share in your Master’s joy.

* Friends. Don’t worry about me. I am not depressed. I am writing this post to encourage some of my older friends.
• 老马识途 (lǎo mǎ shí tú): “An old horse knows the way.”

Related post
A Live Dog is Better than a Dead Lion? (Ecclesiastes 9: 4) – Enjoying Life between Misery and Mystery