How was 2017 for you? It’s that time of the year again where we look back and lament about how quickly another year has gone by and perhaps sit down and make some new resolutions for the new year. For one thing, some people are so tired of making new resolutions that they’ve altogether decided to go on with life as is and coast along into another year.
I want to give us a few things to consider on this last weekend of 2017 and I pray that it’ll be helpful for you in making 2018 a much better year ahead.
1. God-designed Cycles
Another 12 months, another year, the earth has orbited around the sun one more time. This is not some cynical declaration of how everything is vain. Instead, if we realise that it’s God who designed this world to proceed in cyclical motion, perhaps we should ask the question of God’s intention for doing so. For one thing, we all fail and not everything we started out to do has been accomplished. Sometimes our fervour wanes and we drift from the vision that God had given to us. Yet in the cyclical nature of time, God has incorporated a reset, a recalibration point, a moment where we can get back on track.
If we can see this at the close of another year, then let me encourage you on a few fronts. If you failed in some areas of your life, pick yourself up again and don’t give up. Forget what lies behind, press onwards towards God’s upward call. Reflect on the direction of your life and make some mid-course adjustments. Whatever you do, do not enter the new year on a heave of activities and parties, but take time out to get ready for a new year.
2. Old Habits Die Hard
One great realisation for me this year is that we no longer have a CD drive in our whole house. Yet another invention for which I witnessed its birth in my lifetime has abruptly ended. While the reality of the extinction of the CD is all around us, yet they’ll remain for a few more years because there are still some who will cling on to the old simply out of habit. Hence the adage, old habits die hard.
On a specific note, as we enter a new year, we need to intentionally let some old habits die and put in place some new ones. In this regard, I’m specifically talking about old, destructive, trivial and senseless habits that waste away our time and energies. We all still have some of those ones and each year, we need to let a few more of those die. At the same time, we need to construct some new habits. This will take intentionality. It’ll take discipline. It’ll require some boundaries to be set. It’ll take some accountability to be established. God never intended for us cycle around in futility. Our paths are meant to wind upwards.
3. Slow and Steady Wins the Race
For some people, slowing down is really hard. But in general, I think the issue is not “slow”, the problem lies with “steady”. Keeping consistency is probably one of the toughest things to achieve in life. We’re all good at starting up many things, but being consistent in those things over a prolonged period of time is where many of us fail at. Still, without consistency, nothing can truly be produced in our lives.
One essential thing we’re taught in the army is this – we can go further as a group than as an individual. Find some people to journey together on the same resolutions for the new year. Give one another permission to hold each other accountable in a strict and demanding manner. There’s a reason why coaches are strict and make demands. We all need a push, so set it up in your life for the new year.
Let us be a wise people. One that knows how to number our days as a new year begins.
Ready? Set? Go!
