New Year, New Me

I felt that this post was more suitable for the quiet of the day after the night before; after all, who wants a reflection in the middle of celebrations?

So, here we are, another year has flipped on the calendar, just a minute ago you were clinking glasses at midnight, the next, you’re staring at a the first day in January, wondering where the party went!

But perhaps you're also thinking, now's the time, “New Year, New Me”

But let’s be real, do we not do this every year? that desire to push the reset button! To finally make that change, to drop the habit, mend the bridge, do that one thing that'll make us and our lives better! I think that deep down there’s something in all of us that craves a clean slate. The Apostle Paul got it when he wrote:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

It’s not just about gym memberships and more youthful bodies, no, it’s that deeper hope that asks:

Can I actually change?

The 'New Year' just gives us a cultural marker to hang that hope on. But real transformation? well that’s a God-thing, which starts from the inside and works it's way out!

In the bleak midwinter we long for the long lazy days of summer and January can be…grim. The holidays are over, bank accounts are low, it’s dark at 4:30 PM, and everything feels a bit bare and frozen. It’s the “bleak midwinter,” No doubt you look out the window and already dream of long, lazy summer evenings, light that lasts, warming our bones, and bringing with it, growth! It’s a physical feeling that mirrors a spiritual one.

We live in the “already but not yet.” We have hope, but we also feel the chill of a world that’s still broken. We long for the ultimate “summer” the restoration of all things. What Paul wrote in Romans 8 says it perfectly:

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:22

Yeah, you know that groan? That’s us missing the light, missing the way things are supposed to be.

Here’s the kicker, though. Our New Year doesn’t start in the long days of summer, during easy days! It starts in the depth of winter. And right in the middle of that, just passed, is Christmas, which for us is the reminder that God didn’t wait for perfect conditions to show up!

“The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Matthew 4:16

The birth of Christ is God’s ultimate resolution. His unwavering decision to come down from heaven, to be with us, and start the work of making all things new. That baby in a manger is the first and greatest promise that assures us that our longing for “summer”, for peace, for wholeness, for home, for restoration with the Father, isn't in vein!

So when we make our small and often short lived resolutions, maybe what we’re really reaching for is that bigger restoration. The mending of our relationship with God and with everything else. The prophet Joel gives us a whisper of God’s heart:

“Return to me with all your heart... I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” Joel 2:12, 25

Now that’s some invitation, not just to be a better version of ourselves, but to be 'returned to Him'. To have our wasted years restored. Our hope isn’t in our own willpower to change, but in His power to redeem and rebuild us.


So here we are, in the quiet (and kinda cold) dawn of a new year. Hold onto that summer longing, for it is a holy ache! And let your personal resolutions be small steps that flow from the biggest truth of all. Because of Christmas, because of the cross, we are people being made new, as we walk through winter toward an endless, eternal, brilliant day with the Father.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

He’s making a way, even here, even now; may you resolve to follow in his way today!

Happy New Year, and God bless,

Trev.