Everything Blurs

Are we seriously about to start a new year?

I suppose this same thought hits me at the end of every year. It’s like you’re so busy just catching your breath from Christmas that you don’t have time to realize you’re about to start an entire new year. I’ve tried to stop and weigh it in my head on numerous New Year’s Eves, but I’ve always come up somewhat short. Because I think there’s something deeper to it than we think. I guess I’ve been really fixated on how things are deeper than we think lately. I’ve asked my friends if they had a good Christmas, and many respond with what gifts they received. I’ve done the same thing. I think we’ve missed the point somehow.

So when we think about the end of year, we watch CNN talk about how historic a year 2005 has been…and certainly that is true. We plan how we’re going to spend our New Year’s Eve, because we can’t allow it to just be one more Saturday night. Surely that would cheapen it. Surely that would degrade what we’re trying to do. The hope that we’re attempting to achieve with looking forward to a New Year. The anticipation. The anxiety. The curiosity. There’s so much happening that it all blurs. The past blurs with the present, yesterday with today with tomorrow, and we can no longer distinguish between them. And in the haste to have a good time and ring in the next year with a positive vibe, we lose sight of its true significance.

I was talking to God last night about a fresh start. I was talking with someone else today about how every day is a chance to do better than the last. How much more so for a new year? We make resolutions that have become passe, but truly this is a huge chance for us to really attempt to change things for the better in our lives. Who is our God if He is not a Giver of second, third, and many more chances? How grateful should we be for this? How much should we be focusing on this instead of on our party plans?

I’ve approached my resolutions with a different sense of devoutness this year. I’m aware that what I’ve committed to do, I’ve committed to do before God. So I didn’t make cheap ones. I made three serious resolutions. I’ve asked Him to hold me to them. I’m scared to death about how He’ll do that. But in the end, we’ll be better because of it.

It’s been a wild year. The next proves to be even wilder. Bring it! So raise your glasses of bubbly and toast the coming year. But don’t cheapen its significance. Don’t cheapen the fresh start He’s given you. Don’t let it go by in a blur.

Happy New Year!