Christmas has come and gone. We have one more possible celebration to close out the 2023 holiday season in New Year’s Eve, and then it’s just 90 more days of winter. New Year’s Eve can be such a mixed bag. You love it because you’ll take any excuse to party. You hate it because it’s dumb to celebrate one day becoming tomorrow. You’re indifferent because a) you’re up past midnight all the time or b) you’re ALWAYS ready to go to bed so staying up late isn’t special.
Whether you’re a party animal or a party pooper, I think we can all take the turning over of the year as a moment to pause and reflect. For most of us, the actual transition from December 31, 2023 to January 1, 2024 will have little impact on our lives. As that one song says, “nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” You will still love the people you love and be passionate about the things for which you have a passion.
As we reflect on the year that was, and look forward to the year that will be, we can examine those points in our life that may need some adjustment. We can look at the things we’ve treated too lightly and decide we need to get more serious about them.
James 1:22-25 says “22 …be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, they are like a person who looks intently at their natural face in a mirror. 24 For they look at themself and go away and at once forget what they were like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, they will be blessed in their doing.”
We can move from simple hearers to active doers as we move from one year to the next. This isn’t a call for another New Year’s Resolution, this is a call to act like what we believe is true and live it out for the people around us.