It’s the new year again. We have wrapped up 2015 and rolled into 2016.  

New expectations.
New hopes.
New dreams.
New aspirations.
New resolutions.

We come into each New Year saying we will do this and do that. Maybe we say we will lose weight (I think most of us say that whether it’s New Years or not). We say we will undo a bad habit. We say we will create a good habit. We say we will love more. We say we will hate less. We say we will forgive. We say we will be something we’ve never been.  We say we will aspire to be or do…something new.

As I was reflecting on this New Year and what it represents to me it dawned on me…

The New Year is a gift. 

It’s the gift of time.

Time to start over.
Time to try again.
Time to become.
Time to undo.
Time to do.
Time to learn.
Time to forgive.
Time to be forgiven.
Time to grow.
Time to love well.

It’s the gift of being given more time here.

My best friend’s father passed away yesterday and as I thought of him and his place on this earth, I thought of all of the time he had been given. I thought of how many New Years’ he must have celebrated in his 65 years. I thought of how many times he must have resolved to be the good man that he became.

We actually lost many loved ones last year. A friend. A cousin. A co-laborer in Christ. They lived. There was a time for each of them to be born and a time for each of them to die. They labored. They plowed. They harvested. They reaped. They loved. They lost. They gave. They loved. They left an impression on our lives. Each of them were given time for a season just as all of us are given time…

Time is our most precious thing because it is the gift that gives us the now to become more than we were…all that we could be…and all that we should be.

Time is our gift.

John Henry Newman is quoted as saying,

“To live is to change. To be perfect is to have changed often”

Time gives us this opportunity to change and to change often. Time gives us permission to continue to pursue the perfection of the heart of the Father.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:4

We are renewed day by day if we allow ourselves to be…and time allows it…but do we recognize it. Do we recognize the opportunity that time gives us a new opportunity to forgive that loved one.

Time gives us the opportunity to mend. Time gives us the opportunity to heal…ourselves…and others. Time gives us the opportunity to be a blessing to someone else. Time gives us the opportunity to embrace what we have been given.

Time gives us the opportunity to know God in ways we haven’t before. Time gives us the opportunity to fail miserably and learn from it. Time gives us the opportunity to simply be more like Him today than we were yesterday.

I’m grateful for time. I’m grateful for a New Year. I’m grateful to be given the chance to continue to change and to change often that I might be a little more like Him and a lot less like me.

When you wake up tomorrow give thanks that you have been given more time.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8