This is probably the weirdest week in the year. It’s that awkward week between Christmas and New Year’s. People are still traveling and spending copious amounts of time with family. The business world is not quite back to normal. If your week is anything like mine, you’ve spent the last couple of days mostly lying around and eating as you play games, watch sports and movies, and just spend time with family.
It’s during this time leading up to the new year when people start thinking about goals. What do I want to do next year? How do I want this year to be different than last? There’s eagerness and anticipation about what the next year could bring.
Take Time to Reflect and Remember
In the midst of slothfulness and extreme productivity and planning, I would encourage you to do something else. Take some time to reflect and remember. Before you move on to thinking through what you hope this next year will bring, spend some time thinking through how this last year went, both the good and the bad.
What were the highs? What did you accomplish? How did you become a healthier person? What new relationships did you develop? What habits, dreams, and relationships do you want to take with you into the new year? What gifts of grace has God given to you this past year?
What could have gone better? What heartbreak did you experience? How did the year disappoint you? What aspects of your life could use some improvements or further examination? Where have you struggled with God this year? What relationships in your life could use some work?
How to Reflect
It’s not always fun to reflect, especially if it’s been a really hard year. It might be depressing or heartbreaking. However, it’s important to do. We can’t move forward in a healthy way until we take the time to see where we’ve been and how that’s affected us.
There’s not one right way to reflect either. It could look like writing out some thoughts about the last year, having a conversation with a friend or a family member, or just simply taking some time to think back on the last year.
Whatever it looks like for you, take some time to reflect. We rarely get a chance to do that in our world. So often we’re just reacting to what’s going on around us in the present. But it’s important to look back, to reflect and remember. The Bible shows us that this is an important practice, particularly around holidays.
Biblical Examples
In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to keep a bunch of festivals, feasts, and holidays. Each one had a different focus. There was a celebration of the harvest and the good things that God had provided. Another holiday was a reminder and renewal of the covenant that God had made with them and the importance of them keeping it. There were others, but all were reminders to the Israelites of what God had done for them.
Christians throughout history have also kept different feasts, festivals, and holidays, the big ones being Christmas and Easter. Both of these days remind us of what God has done for us. Jesus also instructed his disciples to reflect and remember his death on a regular basis through the practice of Communion.
Holidays Help Us Reflect and Remember
Holidays are made for celebrating and making memories, but they’re also meant to help us reflect and remember. We reflect and remember what God has done for his people in the past. We also reflect and remember what God has done for us. This, in turn, should inspire us to think through how we can better embody those truths to others and live them out in our own lives.
Through this process of reflecting and remembering, we should realize that God has been behind it all. Whatever good things happened or were accomplished, God was the source of those things. That was the reminder to the Israelites as they celebrated their holidays, it’s the reminder to those Christians who have come before us, and it should be a reminder to us today.
Yes, we think through the next year and what we would like to happen. We plan to institute new habits and learn new things. However, we submit these goals and dreams humbly to God, recognizing that if we accomplish what we set out to do, it’s only because God, in his grace, has enabled us to so. That’s something worth celebrating.
PS: For more on goals, check out this post.
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