Another year over and a new one just begun

And a very happy new year to you. It doesn’t seem twelve months since I last sat down to consider new year’s resolutions and the like. I may not be the biggest advocate of such things, but I believe striving to be more holy is worthwhile, and the start of a new year is a kind of rest stop to think about how we’re doing.

I love lists – writing them, crossing things off, rewriting them. I recently copied various lists from my old diary into my new one (I know, how old-school). At the start of 2015, I am also metaphorically transferring things from the 2014 resolutions list onto the new one for 2015.

Needless to say I have fallen short of the ideal many times in 2014, but each new year (and each new moment) is a new opportunity. My assessment for 2014? Not yet perfect. But let us not be downhearted by our failings, and instead give thanks for God’s grace. 

As John Newton put it, ‘I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, [but] I can truly say, I am not what I once was. […] “By the grace of God, I am what I am.”’