A lot of expectations attend the passing of one calendar year to the next. Yet, in truth, there’s no inherent reason for having such expectations. It’s just one set of 24 hours following another. Nevertheless, pretty much everyone envisions the coming year as offering hope that things will be better than the last: new skills acquired, adventures undertaken, persistent problems overcome, even world peace realized!
The desire for better awakened by the coming of a new year, comes with the territory of being human. Since the Fall, we’ve been operating at less than capacity, and the world in which we live exhibits its “bondage to decay” in multitudinous ways. As a result, we are often yearning for things to be as they ought to be (whether we can put words to that yearning or not), and with the new year comes fresh hope.
Of all people, Christians have reason to believe that the coming year will be better than the last. We know that a good, wise, and omnipotent God is in control of history, and he is guiding it to the moment when he makes “all things new.” We also know that he is at work conforming his children to be like his Son, fitting us for the glorious existence he has purchased for us. That means that whatever transpires is designed by him to accomplish that extraordinary end.
But we have a part to play in how this year accomplishes his design. We don’t just sit back and let the days roll by. The relationship we have with our Savior is meant to be active. As he works in us we can expect that we will be called to more and more yield our entire selves to him. Jesus teaches that if we try to preserve our life, we will lose it; but if we lose it, we will keep it. As C.S. Lewis urges, Jesus says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You . . . No half-measures are any good . . . Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked — the whole outfit.” It is natural, indeed, too natural, for us to try to accommodate Christ to the life we envision. But our life’s satisfaction and joy, comes with embracing the vision he has for us. May 2018 be a year in which he more and more lives in and through us.
