New Year, Same God

It is a new year.  A new calendar. A new number to write on documents.  But new can be very much the same.

We are the same.  The life we live did not transform the moment the clock struck 12 on January 1.  

Our personalities are the same.  Our struggles are the same. Our strengths are the same.

So if anyone is unnerved by new, let me remind you that we have new mercies every morning.  And those come with far less expectation, far more grace.

The expectation of a new beginning can be daunting if only for the fact that we know our humanity does not change.  Our finiteness is always with us. We have no way to see what this next year will bring. No way to predict the direction than we did 365 days ago.  

But in a way that is comforting.  The unknown has lay ahead before, and here we are.  We made it through. Maybe a little bruised at times.  Maybe a little more tired, or with a few more wrinkles, but we are here.  

The pressure sits on our shoulders to make this next year less messy than the one before.  To do everything in our power to create paths through fields of daisies, pretty sunrises, and rainbows.  To manufacture laughter and success and beauty out of the same stuff that we were given the year before.

But what would it look like for me to look ahead and know that life will be hard at times.  To expect that many days will not go my way. That I may lose a friend, or my health, or my temper.  To know that in 2019, I will ugly cry on my bathroom floor at least once. That I will yell at my husband a couple more times.  That some of my past struggles will make an appearance a time or 2.

What would happen if I acknowledged that?  Would it put a dark cloud over the next 365 days?  Maybe.

Or…

Would it free my from dread?  Would it give me space to see the beautiful goodness right in front of me, instead of peering ahead to predict the bad?

As January 1 has come and gone, my soul has gone from a white knuckle grip on the future, fearful of letting it run away from me into the unknown and uncontrollable, into a new type of expectancy.

Instead of expecting the worse, I have come to grips with the trials ahead (as much as I can ahead of time). And I have found freedom to look instead for the victories that are promised for this year.  I am sure that this year will be full of priceless moments. People to meet. Lessons to learn. Moments where God shows up. Times of praise and healings. Friends with new babies. Weddings planned. Trips that have yet to be scheduled.  Chance meetings. Quiet mornings. Encouraging prayer.

This year will have beautiful victories, just like the last one.  And I want to celebrate those more than I dwell on the disappointments.  Because God is worthy of praise. He is worth our attention. He gives us good in spite of the bad and good out of the bad.  

So I have a feeling about this year.  It will be a good one. Not because God is going to do more good things.  Because God can’t be more good than He is now. But because I am praying for eyes to see them.  For a heart to understand then. And for a spirit to celebrate and acknowledge them.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that I missed many opportunities to look upon God’s goodness this last year, or decade, because I was waiting for the next complication.  But the Bible tells us in this world there will be trouble. But it also tells us that God has overcome the world. It points often to the beauty of creation. To the gloriousness of redemption.  To the daily graces that get overlooked. And this year, I want to see.

So let’s commit to a year of celebration.  Because God doesn’t change, but we can. There will be trouble, but why should that steal our joy.