I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. Setting a specific personal goal for the entire year has always felt to me like a setup for failure. I’ve never been successful in keeping the resolutions I’ve made and as the year goes on, all I’m left with is a feeling of discouragement. Still, this is a time when we may want to take stock of 2023 and look ahead to 2024 - a moment for reminiscing, reckoning, and renewal. We’ll be doing this together as a community this Sunday when Peter+ and Zack+ will look back at the year that is past and look forward to the year that is coming.
As I was bemoaning my unsuccessful resolutions of years past, a friend of mine suggested the idea of choosing a word for the year. This is a word or phrase that can be a guide for the year to come, a gentle reminder of what you want to focus on that leaves room for change, growth, and flexibility. It can be any word that reflects your hopes and values and helps to orient your perspective as you go through the year. What might your guideword be for the coming year?
Then again, as we think about words that express our goals and hopes for the year ahead, we might want to keep in mind the Word itself, the Word that “became flesh and lived among us” in Jesus Christ. This Sunday we will hear again (as we did on Christmas Day) those famous words from the Prologue to John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:1-4). John’s verses are reminiscent of the first words of the Bible in Genesis. They evoke God’s creative, loving, and life-giving nature as God spoke the world into being. The Word (from the Greek logos) is a love that never fails and a hope that never disappoints, things that the world needs now more than ever.
There have been moments this past year when words have failed, when words seemed insufficient to meet the moment, and when simply sitting still, waiting, and listening seemed like the best thing to do. In those times, we can leave room for the Word to speak. We can allow time for the Word to accomplish what we cannot do by ourselves. So once again this year, I will leave my ill-fated resolutions aside. And instead of choosing a word to guide me, I will let the Word be my guide.
