In importance of new things

I've been thinking about the significance of a new year, and leaving the past behind. Of new starts, of restoration and invigoration. Of new life.

There's something uniquely Christian about being able to say, "I'm leaving the past behind. I'm going to change." Christians are the only people in the world who actually can. We need help to change, and we have it. In the form of God living in us.

So at the beginning of a new year, when our planet completes another revolution about the sun, at a purely arbitrary date that we call January 1, we have another opportunity to say...this next trip around the sun, I'm going to do better, speak better, think better...be better. Not because of my good intentions, but because of my good God. I'm going to be less of me, so as to be more of Him, and in so doing becoming more of me.

We can once again dedicate ourselves to really living. To pursuing the solid purposes and relationships of life, instead of living in the fog distractions and the expectations of others. Instead of sinning.

New birth. New covenant. New wine. New commandment. New creation.