New Year…New You?

New Year…New You?

By Kevin Huguley, Rush of Fools

Oh, the New Year:
To resolve, or not to resolve?
 
January 1 makes us do weird things. For many of us, the night before was filled with taking explosives and sending them through the winter air, or even aiming the smaller ones like bottle rockets or roman candles towards our siblings or friends... (The latter being NOT a good idea, by the way.)
 
Whatever the case may be, it seems as if the chemicals in fireworks settle in our minds during the sleep cycle on New Year's Eve to launch us into strange ideas for the next day. Often times, this day and month is the WORST for those that are the regulars in the gyms across the land. Why? Because those of us that aren't, get the idea in our heads that this year is gonna be DIFFERENT. That is… until February. Then, it’s goodbye treadmills and weight benches.

Of course, it is somewhat natural for us to be this way, making resolutions that we won't follow… A new year is a moment of reflection of the past and the recognition that in this new season we want life to see progression. Just as The Byrds sang so brilliantly in "Turn, turn, turn," from Ecclesiastes: 'there is a season... and a time to every purpose, under Heaven.'
 
So yes, we are almost all guilty of committing ourselves to promises that we won't keep. In this new year, let us recognize together that there is severe danger in these empty promises, and according to Scripture, we ought to be cautious, not of saying how the YEAR is going to be different, but moreover, even how TOMORROW is going to be different. James warns us:
 
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” -James 4:13-16
 
There is great comfort to be found in understanding the utter dependence we have upon our loving Father, as Philippians teaches us, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Our reminder for this day, week, month and year is that it's for HIS good pleasure, not ours. So maybe we should resolve in this New Year after all. We should resolve to believe that our sovereign God, who began a good work in us, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.