A New Year...every day

Wow....just a few weeks since my last post. Somehow time slipped away. Isn't that always the case? I feel like my journal says that repeatedly.

This time, as the New Year rolled in, I interpreted the changing of the season (and subsequent changing of the date) in a new way. Each year, I find myself reflecting on the past 12 months and evaluating what I have accomplished, what I have left undone, what I have done well, and what I have done...well...not so well. Ultimately, I end up in a massive "funk" for a few days as I begin to sink into a pit of self-deprecation and eventual fear of failure for the next year that is literally minutes away. I find myself regretting the past rather than rejoicing over redemption. I become ingrained in the negatives instead of relishing in the positives. Worst of all, I begin preemptively telling myself that the next year will be no different....talk about shoving God into a box. I might as well stuff His grace and sovereignty in that tiny box and put it on the very back shelf of the deepest and darkest place in my heart. Thank goodness He is too Kingly and Majestic to stay in that box!

This year, as the date changed from 2008 to 2009, I realized what an opportunity we are given to experience a "New Year" every day. We become so hung up on resolutions that we miss the ever-present gift of salvation in front of us each day. We have God's love letter to us in the form of His spoken word, and yet we depend on an earthly time change to wash us of a tough past and ready us for a different future. I am not sure about you, but I don't long for a different future...I long for a hopeful one. Jeremiah 29:11 confirms that He has that hopeful future for us. His mercies are new every morning. Whew.

Our hope is in Him...not a time change. Welcome, friends, to your New Year. Onward and upward.