Hello 2023!
Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. - Ephesians 4: 23-24
We have been awaiting your arrival. Perched with eager anticipation at your doorstep, in hopes of goodness. Desirous of better. As if by the stroke of midnight on January 1, your state of being will prove different. Your predecessors left feelings of inspiration and the bitterness of disdain, proving transformational, hard, and everything in between. Some experiences we welcomed; others, not so much. Each experience carefully crafted to bring forth its intention, to draw us closer to God.
Ironically in you, 2023, we see the same potential and newness as with years prior. The promise of hope. The expectancy of renewal. We dance in the haze of amnesia, longing for a string of endless feel-good encounters, because we care not to recall the painful past. We hope for mercy. We pray to saunter in the grace of which your predecessors fell short. Yet, we are grateful for each year before you. The impeccable timing of their lessons serve purpose. And though many of us just assume we forget the embedded scars their marks left, we cannot. Such damning blows acquaint us with the truth of who we are.
We hope you will be different. But somehow we aren’t convinced. Perhaps this too is your genius. Provoking with energizing promise while keeping us grounded. A waltz of audacity and practicality. We wonder, will you eventually settle us in the annual ritual, where we find ourselves readily dismissive of you during your final days in December as we have been of your predecessors? Where you cause us to wait with expectancy of the hope offered in yet another new year? Where you too, as in years past, refuse to relent until your brilliance rests upon us, intentionally causing us to pause and ponder. Reflecting. To grapple with ourselves. To sort experiences, securing lessons intended for our continued journey while purging what no longer serves us. To do more than bid riddance to the set of months which justly worked to better align us with God’s Will. To fully embrace the reality that nothing will be different unless we, ourselves, are different.
2023, may we both prove faithful. With you, following in the footsteps of your predecessors, granting opportunities which challenge each of us to live authentically. May we, in turn, live life fully, purposefully, and in accordance with the Will of The Father. In gratitude for the past, with thanksgiving for what is to come, beginning with the change within us.
Our hope must be tied to the unchanging promises of God. - Lysa Terkeurst
