New Year

Sermon no. 1816, delivered on Thursday evening, January 1st, 1885, by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”—Revelation 21:5.

I was engaging in a bit of year-end reflection the other day. As usual, since reaching age 50 or so, my reflections quickly began to leap back multiple years, and then decades. And also as usual, my old friend Mr. Regret stopped in for a visit.

Don’t get the wrong idea. This is not a “negative” post. I’ve learned that Mr. Regret can only visit for as long as I let him. His visits might be more frequent now, but they’re shorter.

If we had conversations, they would go sort of like this.

If I had it to do over again….

How many times have we thought that way? If you’re like me, probably more than you would like to count.

If we had it to do over again—with an assurance that we’d do at least as well as we did—what efficient and artful users of time we could become!

Unfortunately, we all know it doesn’t work that way. We are forced to use time … in real time. Moses’ prayer, therefore, carries for us the utmost urgency:

Reposted from Rooted Thinking.

2022. What kind of year lies ahead of us? Will we continue living in this dystopian world or will we finally return to normal?

Last year at this time I wrote a column about the concept of taking time during this final week of the year (or, if you still need it, the first week of January) to plan for the new year.

This period has become quite meaningful to me, and I have grown to love the idea of investing time in reading, reflecting, scheduling, goal setting and generally preparing for the year ahead.