New Year Notes

Repentance, renewal, and resolutions. Let's take a look at what it all really means.

Happy New Year, friends! It’s such a busy time of year for all of us, but I just wanted to hop on and share some thoughts on what this annual holiday means.

Why the Thrill?

I didn’t have any New Year's Eve plans. I actually didn’t mind settling into a quiet evening at home with an order of spicy Thai basil noodles followed by some Glen the Golden Retriever snuggles. After all the Christmas festivities and some post-holiday travel, the idea of ringing in the New Year with anyone but Zeb (he’s at work) or my family (they’re 8 hours north) sounded inferior to this plan.

Still, I caught myself a number of times in the last couple of days looking forward to celebrating the arrival of 2025. It doesn’t really make any sense to me. Tomorrow is another morning just like any other. The sun, Lord willing, will still come up, and then I’ll go about the day doing busy things, like putting away the Christmas decorations and preparing to go back to work. I don’t feel some kind of way about any other mundane day, so why this one?

Maybe it’s the collective spirit of it all - knowing you’re celebrating with the whole world, for the most part, in time-zone driven waves. Like myself, the vast majority of the people I’ve talked to about 2024 have noted how fast it went by and how busy it was. It felt impossible to rein it in. So New Years Day feels like an entirely new start.

Except that for a lot of us, it lands in the middle of everything. I’m not even halfway through this grueling school year. Many of us work on a fiscal calendar that does not begin on January 1. April 16 marks the start of our individual fiscal new years, while January 1, April 1, July 1, or October 1 mark new fiscal years for businesses. April 2 marks a new year for my marriage. August 20 marked the start of my current school year. September 30 marked the start of my new year of life. Being that our family has multiplied, there are plenty more “new years” for us just about every month.

So why is it from December 31-January1, it suddenly comes over us that another year has gone by? Another year had gone by yesterday, too, if we’re going by December 30. Another year goes by any day if you count backwards from that day.

I don’t really know what it is about this day, but I do feel its significance.

Resolutions

I’m not really one for resolutions that say I’m going to eat better, work out more, and be a better human. Those are just pressures I put on myself every other day of the year, so it’s not like I need to do anymore of that. I honestly think most of us are doing that constantly, and that many of our resolutions come from the guilt we feel about the way we spend time, energy, and calories in December more than anything. And December, then, becomes a catalyst to become aware of something our souls crave at all times, but never so acutely as at the end of this particular season.

Renewal. The longing for things to be made clean, simple, new, and right again.

My very favorite day of the holiday season as a little girl was when it was all over and I got to help my mom put away the Christmas decorations. It was like restoring order to the chaos, and I loved watching the light and airy home return to normal and settle in with the new-fallen snow outside. The arrival of the crisp, cold January air signaled to me that the new year had truly come, and to this day, I let the first cold snap blow through my hair and my open jacket to greet the thrill of a new season.

I digress. The holidays make us all a little nostalgic, yeah?

It occurred to me, though, that somewhere between resolutions and the desire for renewal though, I think we find a deeper desire in our hearts to repent, one that says, “I do not like the way I’ve been living, and I want to turn away from it.”

Acts 3:19-20 teaches us:

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

In some sense, I think that we know, whether we are secular or not, that renewal begins with turning away from our bad living. Maybe it’s part of the eternal longing that God has set in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), whether we believe Him or not. And perhaps this is why we are so ready to greet the New Year with commitments to leave behind our messy lives, promising to trade Christmas cookies for kale, screen time for being present, busyness for calm, lounging for activity, spending for saving, or whatever else.

Those are all good sentiments, and I’m always in favor of trying to make our lives mean more each day, but it’s just not where our renewal comes from anymore than our salvation or hope. Ultimately, a resolution is an acknowledgment that something in our lives - our efforts - has either gone wrong or has fallen short of goodness. Resolution without repentance, then, is just another way to say, “I’ve got this on my own, God.”

Check out a few more verses with me.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God…So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 16)

“That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:9-10)

You see, renewal does not come from resolutions that we make to do or be better, nor does it come from the habits we build or the self care that we indulge. It comes from the mercy of the Lord our God when we, on bended knees, lift our sorrowful hearts to Him and offer our lives for His will, knowing that our own plans have fallen far short of His glory and far short of the purpose for which He made us.

True Renewal

I think this is where the perplexity of this day comes in. I think we get so ingrained into thinking that this is the day that we can start fresh that we forget that God’s mercies are new every single morning, without fail. We don’t need to wait for a single day each year or for any clock to strike midnight. The new can come right now, and this each day can be the start of a new year if we want it to be. Maybe we don’t have a big party for it every night, but God’s arms are always open to receive our hearts and start anew.

So I encourage everyone to table your resolutions for a moment and simply spend some time in repentance this week as we welcome 2025, and allow the Lord to do the renewing. 1 John 1:19 assures us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And I think from there, with the renewed spirit of God’s forgiveness, mercy, and love upon us, then we will have a lighter heart to better steward our time, bodies, and resources. At the very least, we will find that God’s favor is a far superior accountability partner than Satan’s shame.

And friends, if you do not know that Jesus Christ is the Lord who saves, let me tell you a little more. Jesus was born over 2000 years ago to the virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. God created us in His Image in the beginning, but we sinned and bore the image of sin. So Jesus came as a man and took on our image of sin, and then He lived a sinless and perfect life. He then took on our sin and shame and faced the wrath of God and died for us - a punishment we deserved for our sin. After three days, He rose again and conquered sin and death for all eternity. He rose again to Heaven, He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us and to dwell with us, and He is going to return one day and set everything right and as it was supposed to be. Why would He do all this? Because He loves us, He loves us, He loves us - you included. And if you read this and decide that you believe it and you want to receive Jesus, you are a new Creation, you belong to the family of God, and you will have eternal life with Christ (and the rest of us).

I want to close by sharing a song with you that I love. I wish I could share a recording from my church, because no one sings this like my pastor, but we’ll go with this video instead. My favorite section is the bridge, the lyrics for which are:

It's never been about performance, perfection
Or striving for acceptance
Let me tell you, it's only by the blood
It's never been about deserving or earning
It's a gift that's freely given
Let me tell you, it's only by the blood
Does anybody want to be holy, righteous
Purified and spotless?
Let me tell you, it's only by the blood
Does anybody want to be worthy, forgiven
Justified, really living?
Let me tell you, it's only by the blood

Next time, I’m going to share my word and phrase of the year, and I’m going to continue with a few of these themes in a post I think/hope will bless many of us, myself included! Until then, may all that God created testify to His power and divine nature, that you may be encouraged by His love all around you.