We’re moving. In fact, all of us are moving. We are about to step out of the back door of 2016 and into the front door of 2017. Most people probably take for granted that the New Year begins on January 1. I have always accepted it as a fact-of-life and never gave any thoughts as to why that date and why not June 1, or August 16. People have been observing New Years for four millennia in some form but not always January 1. The month of January didn’t exist until 700 B.C. when Numa Pontilius added both January and February to the calendar. In 46 B.C., the Roman emperor Julius Caesar established January 1 as New Year’s Day. Pontilius had named the month January for the two faced Roman god, Janus, which was the god of doors and gates who had one face looking forward and one looking back. Caesar felt the date would be the appropriate ‘door’ to the new year.
Thankfully, our celebration of New Years has lost recognition of and connection with its pagan roots. Yet, we do view it as a doorway with our major focus on new beginnings. People make endless New Year resolutions—lose weight, begin an exercise program, quit a bad habit, spend more time reading the Bible, establish a budget, etc., ad infinitum. However, statistics show that a mere 8% of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions. From Exodus to Revelation, scripture tell us to remember various activities. It is a good practice on New Year’s to stop and reflect back over the past year. First, make a list, mental or written, of the blessings you received last year for which you should praise the Lord. It is too easy to ask God for something in prayer and never give Him thanks for answering our prayer. Second, we should make a list of the things we should leave behind.
Each time we have relocated, we have filled my truck with trash, junk, items we no longer used, clothes, and furniture, all going to either the trash depot or Good Will. I’m a pack rat and always struggle with this. But my wife is just the opposite, and throws away my stuff when I’m not looking. Think about this from a spiritual perspective. We tend to hold onto stuff that we should turn loose and leave behind. Occasionally, I have watched the A&E series, “Hoarders”, which documents people who are unable to part with any of their belongings, even their trash. It reaches the point where they can’t move around in their house. One woman had to crawl through a window to get into her bedroom. Sadly, some people’s spiritual life would look like this if we could see it. I’ve known believers who drag around bitterness and grudges against someone from their high school years. A friend of my Dad lived with hatred and anger but refused to let it go taking it to his grave.
Paul wrote, Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice (Eph 4:31 NIV). He also provided a model of his practice, . . . one thing I do, letting go those things which are past, and stretching out to the things which are before, I go forward to the mark, even the reward of the high purpose of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13, 14 BBE). Paul let go, not only his failures, but did not glory in his past successes. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ (v7). In the next verse, he said he counted them as rubbish, dung, or garbage. Rather, he focused on the high call from God in Christ. He left the past in the past and moved forward. Concerning our mistakes, failures, and sins, we confess, ask for forgiveness, and leave them behind or they become a shackle hindering us from moving on to our calling in Christ.
Our mind can dwell on the past and replay our regrets, wishing we had done something another way or not done anything at all. However, regardless of how many times we rehearse resentments, bitterness, anger, and bad feelings we have toward people who have hurt us, we can’t change anything that is now history. But we can leave it in the past and move on. Taking the garbage of the past with us to the future brings obstacles on which we will stumble. I hear people say, “Oh! If I could live my life over. . .” but we can’t. We can learn from it, and we can start all over with a new beginning.
The often-quoted passage from Isaiah sums it up well. The Lord said, Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands (Isa 43:18, 19 MSG). Believe God’s promise and take out the garbage from last year. Don’t let it hinder the new thing that God wants to do.
Sustaining Word for the Week: January 1, is a blank page. Will you scatter garbage all over it? “You’ve got a new story to write and it looks nothing like your past” (Pinterest).