Dear Friends,
Grace and Peace to you in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Happy New Year!

It’s the time of year where we hear people say, “New Year, new me.”

This is usually uttered by someone who has a “New Year’s Resolution.” They want to lose weight, they
want to kick a bad habit, they want to point their life in a new direction, etc.

There’s nothing wrong with having New Year’s resolutions. However, they’re going to require a little
effort on our part. That’s the part a lot of people fail to realize. Many believe that the coming of a New
Year will magically make them more disciplined. No. Sticking to your plan, and working toward your
goals even in the face of adversity will make you more disciplined. And, it won’t happen overnight. It will
take patience and dedication.

“New year, new me” reminds me of our faith journey. Because, in Christ, we are made new. We are new
creations. As Saint Paul reminds us in the fifth chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians:
“16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew
Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there
is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that
is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and
entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”

Christ has made us new. Christ has reconciled with us. Christ no longer counts our trespasses against us.
However, just like our New Year’s resolutions, being made a new creation will require some
participation on our part. If we want to meet the goals of our resolutions, we have to have some
discipline, right? So too will our continuous reformation into a new creation in Christ require some
discipline and dedication. Our New Year’s resolutions require us to turn away from the things preventing
us from accomplishing our goals. So too does our life as a New Creation call us to turn away from the
things that prevent us from loving and serving our neighbors to become more Christ-like in our daily
lives.

Lucky for us, we’re not the only ones working on our journey in becoming a New Creation. As a
community, we lift one another up in our journey to becoming a New Creation. And most importantly,
as Children of God, we know that the Holy Spirit is working through us to keep us focused on our new
life in Christ Jesus.


Thanks be to God,
Pastor Robert