The tinsel has come down along with the holly. Ornaments have been carefully packed and stored for another year. Ribbons and wrapping paper have been shredded amidst oohs and ahhs of another Christmas. Now our thoughts turn to saying goodbye to another year and preparing for a fresh start to the New Year.
As you look back on 2011 I am sure there were many high moments as well as a few low ones. We can’t do one thing to change the past. 2011 is history. 2012 lies before us like an unwritten book filled with blank pages. The story has yet to be told.
I love the New Year. It is a chance to get a fresh start. Many will diet and make other resolutions. Some will succeed and others will fail along the way. For some of you reading this, 2011 was one of the worst years of your life. As you look back you are reminded of the trials, sorrows, and the pains that came your way. For some of you 2011 cannot end fast enough. That is the exact feeling my mother had in 1976. That was the year my four-year old sister drowned.
As bad as 1976 proved to be 1977 was a fresh start. Funny I cannot remember anything about that year other than that the Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl I think. There is something about changing the calendars and starting over that brings hope. We hope the New Year will be better than the last even though from experience we know some years are harder than others. For instance in 1998 my mother died. To make matters worse she died on Mother’s Day weekend. For the rest of my life I will always associate Mother’s Day with the loss of mine. That was also the year I made a major career change.
I recently preached the funeral of my college roommate’s mother. She died just days before Christmas. 2011 will be a hard year to remember for my friend. He already had several other trials going on in his life at the time. His father died about five years ago and his brother died in 2010. All of his immediate family is gone. He has had a tough couple of years but 2012 is a chance for a fresh start.
2012 is the opportunity for a new beginning. We get to refocus our mindset for the next three hundred and sixty five days. We get to catch a second wind to keep enduring through the trials. We get to pick up our speed as we topple the mountains that stand in our way. This is the chance to reevaluate priorities and chart our course for the upcoming year.
Personally I need a fresh start. 2011 threw me for a loop. Major changes occurred that took me totally by surprise. I never saw those changes coming. My entire life changed. I left a loving and prestigious congregation and a home in west Texas to follow God in starting a church. We all hope for a Happy New Year me included. Last year came with some challenges. It is a time to begin again.
Maybe for you that means recommitting yourself to the task at hand. That is the case for me. I have recommitted myself to planting Faith Community Church. Perhaps that means rolling up your sleeves and continuing to tackle that task you have been working at for months and years. Many of you will see this as an opportunity to reprioritize and refocus your time and energies for the next year. You can get a fresh start to reconnect with family and friends. I will also work harder at the writing ministry God has entrusted to me with the publication of several books.
2012 is a blank slate. None of us knows what lies ahead just around the corner. Regardless of what this New Year holds we have a chance to start over. Roll up your sleeves. Hitch up your pants. Set your mind and resolve to get a fresh start. Make this the year you connect or reconnect to God. Make this the year you finally breakthrough. Make this the year you stay the course and end with no regrets. The starting line is before us. ‘Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race that is set before us.” [Heb 12:1]
