Never Ending New Year

Any plans for the New Year? I planned to put a new post up each Monday so I could get into a rhythm and allow more of my collected thoughts to find their way into written words. However, this is Tuesday, so I am late already. Now I face the choice of being disappointed in the ability to follow through on something so simple and contemplate the downward spiral of failure or just start over where I am and move on. Often the most disappointed person in our lives is our-self. We have our personal goals and unspoken expectations that may be unrealized or put on hold. Disappointments no one else can see. The New Year is often a time of reflection and the intention to move forward with some aspect of our lives. Coming up short can lead to a feeling discouragement and, for some, the threat of depression. We have mental conversations asking why we didn't get up earlier, exercise, write the letter, pray, read God's Word, sort that pile of stuff on the kitchen counter and a plethora of other simple things we set our minds to do but our bodies didn't follow through. It can, indeed, be discouraging. I would like to share a thought or two on avoiding the molasses swamp of personal despondency. I suggest you just look to the new year and try again.

Just how can this help? The reality is that you and I live in a never ending new year. The one we celebrate on January first is the traditional western celebration yet it is actually artificial. It is a random day chosen a few thousand years ago and the power and influence of western culture brought about pretty much global compliance. However, the Chinese and the Hebrew folk celebrate their accepted New Years on a different day. Yes, they agree to go along with the January first date so we all can interact on the same calendar but that does not negate the difference of cultural opinions. Looking to the Word of God it seems God allows every day to be a new year. We do not have to wait for some magical day to come to start fresh. Every day is a new opportunity to move forward.

I am of the belief that God is intimately involved with creation. He is not removed from the daily realities of humanity and this world. This does cause me some significant theological distress for it brings things I have been indoctrinated with into contrast with what I see in Scripture. That being said, I will save that discussion for another post. Today I want to postulate that God was not finished with creation after those six amazing days. Yes, the basics were done, however, creation continues all the time. You and I were, "Fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139:14, So God created something new when He created you. Everyday is a new act of creation. Thus, every day is a new beginning, a new year, as it were.

If you have received Messiah Jesus as Savior and Lord you are a, "new creation" according to 2 Corinthians 5:17. You are not recycled material, God is making you new. If you feel like a failure, no worries, "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" Lamentations 3:22-23. New mercies every mornings. Not remnant or leftover mercies, God's mercy toward us is new every day. Therefore we, "walk in newness of life" Romans 6:4. Each morning is a new day, a new creation of God for you and I to enjoy.  A new day to join the Apostle Paul's encouragement from Philippians 3 in forgetting our past failures and to press on to that upward call in Christ Jesus. 

If you take a moment you may well think of other "new" things that are offered to us as each day unfolds. God is at work around us. He is at work in us. He offers new possibilities with the dawn of every morning. Do not allow the spirit of darkness cloud the brightness of His work in you. The Lord did not bring you this far to leave you now. So it is time to begin again, and again, and again, for He is not finished and you are His chosen one. We are invited to celebrate a new year with Messiah as our Savior and friend. So Happy New Years, we only have 160 of them left before next January first.