Starting a New Year
A small step into the promise of something more.
We all come to the first day of the next year with the hope it will be a good one. For some this means better than the last one and for others it means at least as good as the last one (only slightly better, if possible).
It is also, for many, the briefest of time windows where we make promises to ourselves that we will do or be better.
Diets will commence and exercise plans at least considered.
Been there. Done that.
And the longer we live the potentially more cynical we can become because our memories, to the extent they are still operating well, remind us of life’s brief run and that bumps are inevitable. At least we should be less shocked over the whole thing compared to our younger days.
Sometimes I consider the question of whether or not I would want to return to a younger time in my life if I could, and for me at least, the answer is no.
The lessons learned are too valuable and have come at too great a cost for me to want to throw them out for a little longer season in a time of my past. I also understand that my memory is selective and biased towards the pleasant memories, diminishing the worst ones.
Instead, my best hope for the future is tethered to God’s promises to me which are unchangeable. Again, what is constantly changing is my mood and tenacity to grasp them and hold on.
For this reason the best idea for a resolution that can really improve our lives is to stay daily grounded in reading and thinking about God’s love and promises for our future.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12: 1-2 (ESV)
Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.
Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23: 17-18 (ESV)
My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.
Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 24: 13-14 (ESV)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Thank you.
Not to be tendentious but I don't come with any expectation in the passing of another year. If there's any sense, it's more a blessing that I'm still here and that's a daily thing. I'll be 58 this year and that feels old. My kids don't think so but I know that for my cohort (1967), 72 would have been our innings, and I'm comforted by that. Take care, Julian