What’s New?

You have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge and in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10

It’s that time of year again where we think about making our New Year’s resolutions! In many cases, we look back on past resolutions we’ve made and broken, and we think there’s no reason to try again. However, we need to realize that, in many cases, we have outgrown many of the resolutions we made in earlier years, and it’s time for us to pick up and move on. What’s new in this New Year?

If we are feeling like there is nothing new in life, and the same old, same old is the norm, then maybe it’s a great year to evaluate the things in our lives that need some attention. We need to consider three questions in this new year of “what’s new?” First, is it time for us to move on in this new year? Next, if we move on, where are we going? Finally, if we have a time to move on and a destination, what is our vision for our new year?

Is it time to move on this year? We can take a lesson from the hermit crab in making that decision. The hermit crab is constantly outgrowing his shell throughout his life. He looks for a shell that fits him, lives there until he outgrows it, and then he scurries along the ocean floor until he finds a new one that fits him better. He repeats this process throughout his entire life.

If we are clinging to things that no longer “fit us” just because they are comfortable and familiar, then the time has come to move out of our comfort zone and endure a little distress in order to grow. Patience and persistence are admirable qualities, but they don’t work in situations we’ve outgrown. We need to ask ourselves, “Is this good for me?” Ask God to let us know. When God says it’s time to move on, it’s because there’s another shell out there designed to fit us even better.

Once we move on, where are we going? One day Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes lost his train ticket. As he searched for it, obviously irritated, the conductor said, “It’s okay, Your Honor, just mail it in. We all know and trust you.” Holmes replied, “I’m not concerned about finding my ticket, I just want to know where I’m going!” Fifty per cent of people around us have no idea where they are going, forty percent will go in any direction they are led, and the remaining ten percent know where they’d like to go, but fewer than half of them are prepared to pay the price to get there.

We need to begin with a vision. If we set visions in this new year that are clear enough to write down, short enough to fit in a paragraph, strong enough to help us persevere, and valuable enough to make us pay the price to see them fulfilled then we know where we are going. Jesus endured the cross because of his vision of the resurrection and a church that would one day change the world.

Regardless of our age or gender, God has a vision for us to fulfill, and sometimes it won’t make sense because we don’t feel qualified. In the musical, Man of La Mancha, there is a scene where Don Quixote and his servant stand gazing at a dilapidated inn. When Quixote describes his vision of turrets and magnificent gates, his servant tries hard to see the same picture, but all he can see are ruins. When he attempts to describe them, Quixote says, “Stop! I will not allow your facts to interfere with my vision!”

The good news for this new year is that God will take care of us. Just like a good father taking care of a child he loves, God will watch over us from the beinning of the year until the very end. If we walk with God and honor Him in all we do, this year can be one of the most blessed years of our lives.

What’s new this year? We are moving on to new and better things. We know where we are going, and we have a vision to take us to our destination.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has gone. The new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Happy New Year!