I don’t know about you, but by the end of the year, I seem to drag myself over the finishing line that is Christmas.
Each year I say it will be different – I’ll plan better and therefore be in less of a rush to finish my to-do list; I’ll organise ahead of time and the holidays won’t take me by surprise; I’ll remember the ‘reason for the season’ and not get distracted by other things.
Somehow it never works out and I end up frazzled and frustrated, not really having properly finished anything but not having the time or energy to do anything about it. But then the holiday happens, the stress is left behind and I unwind and relax – and start looking forward.
New Year. A clean page, a fresh start, an unwritten chapter. Hope flourishes, possibilities abound. I fill notebooks with ideas and strategies; I plan a reading schedule, an exercise regime, a healthy eating programme.
Within a few weeks, however, reality sets in. Everyone goes back to work or school, the daily routines are back and my grand ideas begin to fade.
The tinsel is back in the cupboard and the sparkle of new beginnings has dulled.
The aftermath of New Year celebrations can be so disappointing. Doubt that there’ll ever be a breakthrough creeps in. We give up pressing in, pushing forward. What’s the point, we cry?
The world tells us to mix it up, try something new, go for a different approach, then everything will be better. We run fast on a treadmill going nowhere when, in fact, we are called to run a race which has a view and a destination. (Hebrews 12:1).
This race needs perseverance. It takes unwavering dedication and persistence. We have to train and discipline ourselves so we don’t fade half-way through. It’s a race where we sometimes have to put our feelings on one side and will ourselves to keep going.
And it is a race with a prize. The prize of Jesus.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His permanence is our anchor, his steadfastness our security. Our hearts may crave change, wishing for the new in order to escape the current, but our Father knows that’s not what we need.
Do you know the hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus? The chorus goes like this:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Paul puts it another way in his second letter to the Corinthians
‘So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ 2 Cor. 4:18
It is when we fix our eyes on the never-changing person of Jesus that the real ‘new year’ begins. He came to give us life and life in all its fullness (John 10:10)—not just for the holidays, or for the passing of a date on a calendar, but for all eternity.