Look Both Ways
The new year isn't just about the future. It's also about the past.
The word “January” is taken from the Latin “janua,” meaning door or portal, from which one may look both ways. The Roman god of beginnings, “Janus,” faced both directions. This month that rings in a new year really isn’t just about the future. It’s also about the past, which plays a big part in things to come, dreams to achieve, and resolutions to fulfill.
The number of championships that Tiger Woods will win in 2001 has much to do with his previous years of training. The reliability of your car in 2001 has much to do with how many times you changed the oil and rotated the tires in the past. The relationships you will have with others and their likelihood to flourish in 2001 has much to do with how you related to those people in these past months and years.
So, now we walk up to the threshold of January, looking into the future while knowing our past, and it begs the question, “Can I really expect 2001 to bloom with glory for me when I didn’t do so well at tilling the soil and planting the seeds in 2000 and previous years?” It’s a scary thought that truly hinders progress in our lives, stunts growth, and puts the brakes on any revved up dreaming. It seems like a logical question to ask ourselves, a reality check that helps us be more prepared for what will REALLY happen this next year.
But be warned, because it’s also a lie that Satan uses to scare us into timid trepidation – to live with a hesitation that keeps us from taking chances, seizing opportunities, changing harmful habits, sharing our faith, or charging into the frontiers of what excites us. All the while we think we’re being faithful to God, others and ourselves but we’re really being faithless. Words like “I could never” and “There’s no way” and “Not me” rule our decision-making, and God watches with disappointment as his children act like cowards, missing all the blessings he had in store for them.
Peter learned that lesson well when Jesus told him to get out of the boat and walk on water. Peter had no doubt gained experience with the water and knew its buoyancy limitations. But the next few steps of Peter’s like were not to depend on Peter or water, but on Jesus.
Take another look into the past and see where you’ve been blessed in ways you simply hadn’t anticipated or arranged. Go further into the past and see how God opens up opportunities for his people even when they have personally paved their way into a dead end. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End,” Jesus promises us (Revelation 22:13). The months of 2001 in your life have much to do with the past – that is, the beginning of the world, the beginning of a millennium, the beginning of each day, the beginning of an important meeting, the beginning of an assignment, the beginning of a new undertaking, the beginning of a new you where Jesus Christ already is before you get there. And the past has much to do with the months of 2001 ahead – that is, the end of doubting, the end of giving into temptation, the end of treating others like dirt, the end of feeling sorry for yourself, the end of abusing God’s gift of wealth, the end of hopeless days where Jesus Christ has already shut the door and turned out the lights.
Your next few steps in 2001 don’t depend as much on you as they do on Jesus. He’s already been anywhere you are. He is always with you in whatever condition you might be. He will always be ahead of you leading the way safely.
Look both ways, and step boldly into the new year. Jesus has it covered from A to Z.
PRAYER: I’ve been slow to believe, Lord, and it has slowed me down. You’ve wanted me to run with a reckless faith along paths you’ve made for me and I’ve strolled with hesitating fear. You’ve promised that, because of your forgiveness and grace, those paths are still there. You’ve given me every reason to believe that the next year will have many opportunities for you and me to travel together on my journey of faith, so let’s go, you and me. Here, take my failures and burdens and get rid of them like you promise, they’ll just slow us down. Take my fears and doubts, you know them already, and give me the courage to overcome them as we travel. Take my excitement and pleasure and shape it into a destination that we’ll pursue together, and enjoy the journey along the way. It’s going to be a great year for us, Lord, you and me! Amen.