"Out with the old!" Cliche, though it is, it seems to concisely sum up the sentiments abounding at the start of a new year. It's especially poignant now, as many have expressed that 2020 couldn't have ended soon enough. But that saying doesn't end there. "In with the new" usually follows, so this begs the question: "Now what?"
"I can't wait!" "I made it!" " I'm never looking back!" These were exclamations heard as the clock ticked from 11:59 to midnight, announcing the end of 2020. People were genuinely relieved.
There's another saying I've heard in the church many times: "God always brings you out to bring you in." In other words, God doesn't just deliver out of; He delivers into. We come out to go in -- to something better.
We all know the turn of the calendar and click of the clock doesn't necessarily mean everything instantly changes, but there is something about a new year that brings new hope. Hope is more than half the battle. But as leadership expert John Maxwell says, "Hope is not a strategy." While we have nothing without it, we still have to do something with it.
A friend on New Year's Day referred to this year as "Twenty Twenty WON." I love it! So I've been using that since. See the hope in that? I see it: victory, prosperity, purpose, on and on. Not hope in a year, but hope in a God who has made available "every good and perfect gift" to all who trust Him.
My prayer is that you, too, will have that hope and then devise a strategy for your new season. I suggest:
It's a new season, and 2020 is behind us, but we should be intentional about the new year. I sure would love to see us reach the end of this year not gasping for air, lamenting its outcomes or just relieved to have made it, but reflecting on a year that saw more victories than defeats, more results than remorse, and more freedom than fear. I want a year that has us rejoicing and shouting on Dec. 31, "Yes, Twenty Twenty WON!"
Adrienne Ross is owner of Adrienne Ross Communications and a former Southeast Missourian editorial board member.
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