A New Year is upon us. 2026. I do not know if you are looking at the new year ahead with anticipation or fear. But I got to thinking about the concept of the new year and the concept of time in general and I realized that the only new thing about this year is the way that we view it. There is fundamentally no difference between the day December 31 at the "end" of one year and January 1 at the "beginning" of the next. There is no special transfer of powers that occurs or anything that makes it different from the transition of say August 2 to August 3. There is no magic (even though a ball might drop) that makes the transition from one year to the next any different from one month to the next, or one week to the next, or one day (any day really) to the next. Maybe this is why so many fail to keep resolutions, because we are looking for newness and change when newness is not really present. Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is not a single thing under this sun that is new.
If you are really looking for change - if you are really looking to make a difference in your life that lasts and one that matters, perhaps we should start considering looking outside of time. If we measure newness by time we will find that history repeats itself and that those who do not understand history are the ones who are destined to repeat it. This is not new. In order to look outside of time we must look to One who is outside of time. We must look to One who created it. We must look to the only one who is eternal. Who was and is and is to come. We must look to God and in Him and Him alone we find the capacity to truly change. We can change into what He wants to make us. We can become what He created us to be. By His help and using His word we can be made new.
So this year don't look to yourself and place your hope in the fact that you might do better. Place your hope in the Timeless One. The One who entered into time as one of us so that He might draw us to Himself. And in looking to Him we can be made new!
