With parties, fireworks, and the ball that drops in Times Square, we celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the next. There is something uniquely beautiful about a year that has not yet had its time to collect its sorrows or disappointments. Something enticing about the newness of a year filled only with hope and possibilities.
Last night I got to spend my New Year's Eve with my family and a few good friends watching the Vanderbilt and Auburn bowl games and then playing Spades at my kitchen table. It was a simple celebration, but I couldn't have been much happier. As the hours passed and midnight approached, we carefully checked the time to make sure we would be ready to welcome the new year. But when the clock turned from 11:59 to 12:00 and 2011 became 2012, the remark was made that the turn to the new year was "anti-climactic".
Anti-climactic. It definitely was. The world did not end, as the Mayan calendar predicted, with the coming of 2012. And life did not feel any different than it did last year. I couldn't help but think about how funny it is that we stay up to watch the clock change when, in fact, the new year is not inherently different from the old.
So it is not a tangible difference that draws us to celebrate, instead it is our fascination with the idea of what a "new" year means. We like the idea that with a new year we begin with a fresh slate and leave the failures and mistakes of an old year behind us.
And we like the idea that even though we begin this new year as broken and imperfect people, that a fresh start offers the opportunity for change and self-improvement. In fact, we like this idea so much that 45% of the population makes New Year's Resolutions to promise changes in the coming months. 34% of people set resolutions related to money and another 38% of people set resolutions regarding weight loss. But these promises to improve often fall short. As people we are flawed, so even in the face of the promise of a new year, only 8% of people regularly meet the goals of their resolutions.
In this world broken and tainted by sin, the promise of newness is wonderfully appealing. But in this life, the promise of a new year, in and of itself, will never be satisfying. For in this new year, time marches on as it always does and happiness and triumphs are often accompanied by sorrows and failures. Such is the reality of life in our imperfect world.
But there is a promise of newness that does not disappoint:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant." Hebrews 9:15
"But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." 2 Peter 3:13
"And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”" Revelation 21:5
We have a God who is making all things new. And through our surrender to Jesus, we will be made as new creations, no longer dead in our sins but newly alive in Christ. And for those who are in Jesus, we are also promised a new heavens and a new earth that will replace this broken world.
Although a new year is not tangibly different from the old, and 2012 will surely have its share of both joys and sorrows (just as every year before it has always had), we are promised the chance to be made new in a beautifully transformative and permanent way. The promise of new life in Christ is not transient, but a lasting reality both in this lifetime and in eternity.
So in this new year of 2012 I want to place my focus on things that matter and place my hope in the lasting promise of new life through my Jesus.
