New Years are not always new

Here I sit, ten days into this new year. I'm currently at work, listening to the youth band rehearse for a gig tomorrow morning. They sound pretty good today. (Proud Mama moment!)

I was thinking about the "new year" recently. My year beginnings are always fun... a celebration, then my birthday soon after. (Now that I'm 24 I feel more like "an adult" than ever....) But I'm wondering about the value of a "new year". We make new year resolutions. What are those, exactly? Why do we keep making promises to ourselves that often we truly have no intention of fulfilling? And why do we usually base our resolutions on bettering ourselves in material and physical ways than on bettering the world or promoting the love of Christ?

I myself, am of course, not innocent of this. But still I think about it.

The most perplexing thing about all this resolution business is how we constantly make the same ones year after year because we did not succeed the year prior. We don't make progress, we just move back and forth in the same area. New years are far too often just a repeat of something in the past.

Why then, do we not make every effort to make each year a truly new beginning? Different goals with a dedication to fulfill. A heart to serve. A mind to question. A will to change the world.

We, as humans, are prone to think of ourselves first, just as we are prone to be lazy. We see a year to fulfill our goals so we keep saying "we'll do it later." A year is a long time... or is it?

A year is no time at all in the length of our life... and it's unimaginably small to God.

So in this impossibly short time we have, let's make the absolute most we can from it. We go through years so quickly... each day should be used to live life in the best way we can. Make the most positive difference we can, glorify God in all we do, and show others the way to true love.

The song the band is currently singing is "They will know we are Christians by our love" or "We are one in the spirit."

May your new year truly be a new beginning for you in that you'll work to make yourself known as a Christian by your love - may it shine brighter than you have ever let it shine. :)

Cheers,
Em