New Year’s Day is more than an event; it’s a decision. 

We waited for the clock to strike twelve, prayed as a family, finished an episode, and went to bed. While everyone’s eating their Media Noche, we’re lying on our beds and hearing fireworks.

Before I got my shut eye, I wondered, why are we so fascinated with countdowns towards New Year’s Day?

Maybe, the transition between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day serves as closures.

Like what some people experience in past relationships, it’s formally saying what we learned, disliked, loved, and regretted. For some, it’s a ceremony of remembering or forgetting things, whether in public or in private.

Could it be that we want to get over something in a snap? 

We distract ourselves with noise, food, and people against the existing loneliness and pain. New Year’s Day becomes a time of flipping a page and thinking the previous ones didn’t exist. We like the feeling of easily getting through something. Sometimes, ceremonies don’t help when we use them as escapes or ways to bury things alive.

New Year’s Day becomes our formal wake-up call to take action on our resolutions.

Resolutions make us feel that time is our companion and not a foe. As long as it’s not yet January 1, we feel we have the license to indulge in our past habits. But time becomes our conscience when we wake up on the first day of the year.

The transition to New Year’s Day becomes our avenue for self-expression, especially through social media.

We thank ourselves for becoming stronger and tell ourselves to brace for more. Other people’s support become a stronghold. We post pictures, either alone or as a family. We take the opportunity for others to hear our story in a nutshell.

New Year’s Day means differently for everyone. 

But for me, at the end, it’s just another day. There’s no magic, but only a change of perspective, and a calendar.

What perspective, then?

I often notice that most people (myself included) thank the previous year and welcome the upcoming. That’s okay, but this sounds like what happened to each is a result of fate, where we are the only ones in control. 

Often, we forget the Maker of years, the One behind all our successes, and our Comforter in our defeats. 

In my experience, the more I strive to take control, the more I fail and get disappointed. I want to be out of that cycle by changing my perspective. And we can only have changed perspectives if we have renewed minds. 

The renewal process can bring us to greater heights and depths. It often brings discomfort, but it’s in pain that healing and growth happen. 

New Year’s Day only becomes extraordinary when we embrace the ordinary.

Our renewal can start anytime between January 1 and December 31. And it happens only with Jesus Christ. 

I don’t know about you, but I pray that you’ll find that glimmer of hope, that spark, to start experiencing the renewed life, regardless of the date.

You are not late in God’s time.

A blessed new year, new chance, new beginning, new hope, new life everyone!

In Christ alone. 🙂

In what other areas of your life you need a renewed mind? Comment down, or send me a message. 🙂

Copyright © 2021 Jarys Sibal