We have come to the end of 2024. The end of a year always calls for reflection and renewal. It is a time to look back at the past year and make plans for the coming one.
I am certain there are …
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We have come to the end of 2024. The end of a year always calls for reflection and renewal. It is a time to look back at the past year and make plans for the coming one.
I am certain there are many who had a great 2024 and hope that the new year will bring more of the same if not a hope for even a little better. I also know that there are many who would rather not repeat last year. There are many who experienced loss, hurt and disappointment. These are the folks who are hoping for a new and refreshing start, anxiously anticipating a better year in 2025.
The idea of a new start is exciting and maybe a little scary as we step into this new year. Those of us who experienced a less-than-ideal year are especially looking forward to a new start. We are ready to greet a new start.
When we experience a tough year or a tough season, it’s always easy to ask, why? Why do these things happen? Why do difficulties arise in our lives and in this world? Is this what God designed?
The clear and maybe oversimplified answer is no. God designed a perfect world with no sadness and sorrow. He created a world of peace and joy. That all changed when man took things into his own hands and decided that his way was better than God’s. When that happened, that perfect world disappeared.
But as we look to the hope of a fresh start in this new year, we can also recognize that God has also offered a new start.
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun,” it says in 2 Corinthians 5:16-19. “And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sin against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.”
God took what men broke and fixed it. He took the bad and replaced it with good through Christ. He gave us the ability to choose a relationship with him through Jesus. He gave us the renewal we needed and a hope for the future. All we need to do is trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross.
Does this mean we won’t still face loss, hurt and disappointment? No … but it does mean we have someone who promised to walk through it with us. In fact, he promised to never leave us.
Are you ready for that new start? Are you ready to turn it all over to the savior who gave his life for us? Are you ready to allow God to direct your steps this new year? There is hope in that new start.
(Jon Allen is the associate pastor of Grace Point in Powell.)