The looming new year can be anxiety-inducing—but God has all the mercy, grace, and rest we need.
The glitz and glamour of the Christmas season are here, but you and I both know there’s a ball waiting to drop at midnight on December 31 that has us more uncomfortable than we care to admit. And that discomfort is the very thing I want to ask you to face: the impending fear of the new year.
If only we could be sure that the new year contained, well, new things for us. New as in good, of course. New as in hopeful, optimistic, exciting. If that were how new years worked, we wouldn’t be feeling so uptight. But lurking behind the new of the new year are all its unknowns and the fears they foster in our hearts.
Questions hover like ornaments dangling from the tree boughs: What will the new year bring? Can I get on my feet financially? Will these health concerns resolve? Can I find some reconciliation for this broken relationship? Will this career opportunity I’ve been working for all these years finally come to fruition? Will I find love?
Yuletide carols with saccharine choruses can do only so much to keep these fears and questions tucked away. But what if we didn’t keep them tucked away? What if we tried three experiments this Advent and Christmas season?
I know what you’re thinking: Is Christmas really the time for experimentation?Don’t I have shopping to finish, gifts to wrap, parties to attend, and family to fight? You do, but wouldn’t you also like to enter the new year with less trembling hands and a more trusting heart?
Experiment 1: Pause
What would it look like for you to let some things go? Go with me here for a second. When Christmas comes around, none of our regular responsibilities end. We layer ribbons and bows on top of our already busy lives: more commitments, more consumption, …
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