The popular New Year catch phrase that we hear when people are coming into the New Year. Coming to Christmas and New Year, we find ourselves reflecting on the year that has been and looking towards the year that is to come.
It’s often during this period of time I realise that the year has flown by at an astronomical rate and yet again. Each year has felt like it has gone faster and faster. Before you know it, Christmas and New Year is upon us.
Reflecting
It is during this time that we find ourselves reflecting on the resolutions and goals that we set at the start of the year; did we live up to the resolutions? Did we achieve everything that we set out to?
And so the beloved yet overused phrase ‘new year, new me’ is born. And whilst there is humour in the phrase there is also some form of realisation that we come to that signifies the new year being a fresh start for us all.
Often, this season seems to reset us and our direction, as we focus on a fresh start welcoming in the new year.
New day
However, in my most honest opinion, I think so often we forget that we get a fresh start everyday, and its our responsibility to seize the day and make sure that in each day we leave behind something that we are proud of.
Most recently, I was reminded of Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
So why is it that we wait till the end of the year to start afresh? My only answer to this, in my own world, is that I have at times missed seeing the reason, learning and blessing in every season.
Instead of reflecting on things as they come, we can find ourselves writing off the whole year based on one season, forgetting that daily we are renewed by grace and mercy.
We can come to the end of the year having had a rough year, and in all our anguish and misery we fail to recognise the gift that we were given this year. Every season has a reason, a learning and a blessing.
Often we fail to see it as we are so preoccupied by how we feel. Maybe a little exhausted, maybe ready for a holiday, maybe ready to hit redo and start the year a fresh again.
Or on the flip side, we could have had a rad year, achieved everything, done more than we expected, seen more than we thought, and have lots to celebrate. But again, in the midst of our celebration, we fail to stop and realise that every season has a reason, a learning and blessing.
The constant
The one that that is constant, regardless of the season that we find ourselves in, is that God remains good. In trials, He is present and He is good. In celebration and joy, He is present and He is good. In everything that we walk through, we are grown, stretched, and evolving daily.
But we need to choose, to stop, and reflect, to be reminded of the reasons, learnings and blessings that we are gifted daily by the experiences that unravel around us.
So really what I’m saying is that the whole new year new me phrase, should apply to all of us. Hold on now, I don’t mean in the 2 weeks of resolutions we try set and then forget about. I mean, it in the sense that into each new year you bring to it, the learnings, the blessings, and the growth from the last year.
More so, this phrase applies to us everyday. Everyday should be a new day and a fresh start, a chance for us to grow, to reflect on the day that has just been, what have we learned, why did certain events occur and what is the blessing that we are taking from it into tomorrow.
So my only resolution coming into this holiday season is; to take everyday as a fresh day, without waiting for the new year, taking time to count my blessings, explore the whys, and grow from the learnings.