Christmas with all its preparations and celebrations is
over, leaving us immersed in the lull before the New Year. Some of us will
spend this time looking back, evaluating what the past year was like – good,
bad, what we didn’t get around to doing as we intended, what we started but
haven’t yet completed.
Others
among us, however, don’t care much for a rear-view mirror approach to life. We’re
eager, excited about the prospect of the old calendar year ushering in a new
one – whether to bid a fond farewell to this year and build on the positives
into the next, or to thumb our noses at the passing year, shout, “Good
riddance!” and hope for better things in the future.
Either way,
like it or not, ready or not, in just a few days 2017 will appear, so it makes
sense to start looking forward. We already know where we’ve been; what we don’t
know is where we will be going. As you contemplate the New Year’s inception,
what are you looking forward to? (Or, to
what do you look forward, for grammar police out there who maintain we must
never end sentences by using prepositions!)
If we’ve
worked hard during the past year, we might be looking forward to a promotion in
our quest to climb the proverbial corporate ladder. Or maybe we’re thinking the
hard work will pay off with the opportunity to move to a better, more rewarding
job somewhere else. Perhaps a special event is looming in the future – a wedding,
the birth of a child, sending one of your offspring to college, seeing one
graduate, or even saying good-bye to the workplace and retiring.
For some of
us it’s not a singular event we’re looking forward to – we just want to make
progress of some kind. It could be in your marriage, at work, or making
positive personal changes by losing some weight, exercising more consistently,
pursuing more education, or taking up a new hobby.
There’s
lots we could look forward to, but let me ask this: What things are you look
forward to in a spiritual sense?
The
apostle Paul offers a wonderful example. He declared, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to
have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 3:13-14).
Obviously, Paul wasn’t talking about making New Year’s
resolutions. He wasn’t about to burst out with a stanza of “Auld Lang Syne.”
The apostle was simply affirming his singular focus, always looking forward to
the work and ministry his Lord had entrusted to him, striving to reach as many
lives as possible for Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere Paul revealed his motivation, the incentive
that kept him in faithful service to his Savior despite numerous trials and much
hardship: “While we wait for the blessed
hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). He was absolutely convinced of the
imminent return of Christ, keeping that expectation in the forefront of his
thinking and planning. The fact Jesus’ Second Coming did not occur during Paul’s
earthly lifetime doesn’t detract from his zeal in serving Him and striving to
introduce others to Him along the way.
The
writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews shared Paul’s “tunnel vision” for
fulfilling the call of Christ. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised
is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and
good deeds” (Hebrews 10:23-24). These words, written nearly 2,000
years ago, suggest the image of a driver at the wheel of a car – or the helm of
a ship – staying on course regardless of the circumstances.
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