New Year

Today’s date is January 4, 2022, which means we are in a new year. For many people across the world, a new year means many things including new opportunities and a new hope. For those looking to build upon the previous year, the new year offers such opportunities especially if lessons were learned from mistakes but the new year also offers hope for those who had a bad year.

Arguably, one of the best movies ever made is Forrest Gump and it seems most everyone has seen this movie and I am no exception. Probably my favorite scene from the movie is the New Year scene featuring Forrest, Lt. Dan, and their lady friends celebrating the coming of a new year in 1971 New York City. This scene illustrated what the clock turning over to 12:00 am midnight of the new calendar year signifies for so many.

Without question, everyone knows the “life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” line but the New Year quote stood out most for me. In the scene, the lady tells Forrest about what the New Year means to her: “Don’t you just love New Year’s? You get to start all over. Everybody gets a second chance.” Honestly, this is the takeaway that I believe so many across the world hold which is why reigning in the new year has become a worldly tradition.

“Don’t you just love New Year’s? You get to start all over. Everybody gets a second chance.”

As a Christian, I am not against such a mindset in anyway. In fact, I believe the concept or idea behind the new year perspective is the foundation of the Christian faith. For example, each person who gives their life to God did so not because it was tradition but they were in search of something more and once they gave their life to Christ, they were a new creation. While a new year has no guaranteed outcome, a new found life in Jesus Christ has the best guarantee offer on the table by anyone.

Unlike the newness of each new year, the unique newness of a life with Christ never wears off as Jesus is the same today as He was the very day a person hands him their life and He will be the same tomorrow that He is today. While each person is different in their walk and relationship with Jesus Christ, the rewards are the same for everyone. If a person is in search of a better way of life, there is no better way than Jesus Christ. In fact, there is new hope found in a life with Christ and in this new life comes new opportunities.

In the New Year, 2022, there is plenty of room for growth especially if you allow all the negativity from 2021 to leave you. If 2021 saw very little good and gains, rest assured that every storm runs out of rain. Literally, leave the bad with the old you and move on to the new you. If 2021 was a great year, there is no reason 2022 cannot be even better and this is just one opportunity that we find when we walk with Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, we find much more than just hope but we have assurance and in the new year, I hope and pray that all who have not found this reassurance finds it!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”

-1 Peter 1:3-4