Whether 2025 seemed lightning fast or painfully slow to you, a new year has dawned, and only God knows what it will hold for each of us, and that’s not our concern anyway. So what should concern us at the dawn of this new year—this gracious restart God has woven into the fabric of His good created order? I find G. K. Chesterton’s words from a century ago to be sage advice for this pivotal place we find ourselves once again. He wrote, “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” Chesterton charged us to approach the new year as if it were a spiritual and physical reset—an opportunity to sever ourselves from the disappointing patterns of the past year and refresh the habits we know will help us grow in holistic holiness, with an ever-increasing, ever-intensifying focus on the New Creation the Lord has promised to all those who are united to Christ in faith. It is as Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” So, friends, let us begin 2026 with refreshed focus on following Jesus in simple obedience, putting to practice everything He taught us in 2025 and eager to learn much more about His heart over the course of this next year!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mike