We’re a few days into 2023 now, and some of us are hustling to get those resolutions in order so that they still “count.” The new year dawned (maybe even at dawn), and we were tired. We meant to come up with some really great plans, a guiding word for the year, a solid resolution or two — and we were thinking about it. But we didn’t get those thoughts to the finish line before the clock ticked down. There were all the Christmas things taking up time and space, and now it feels like maybe the moment has passed us by and this won’t be a tidy new start.
It’s fine. Everything is fine. God’s mercies are not tied to our calendar or sparkly balls dropping at midnight or the insistent voice of every self-help guru on Instagram Jan. 1. His mercies are new every morning. This morning. Tomorrow morning. Even next week.
And while we’re talking about the self-help gurus, I urge you to think twice about embracing the “new year, new you” philosophy. If the new year inspires you to change, and if you want to embrace the chance to implement some new habits or reset some rusty patterns, that’s commendable, even desirable. But don’t toss the old you aside in the process. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge how valuable the old you is.
The old you survived 2022. And before that, she survived 2021 and 2020. You could even look back further than that. The old you has endured every disappointment, every hard diagnosis, every loss, and every perceived failure. The old you learned some valuable lessons in the school of hard knocks. She’s wiser now. You need her. Don’t look on her with disdain.
Instead, look her in the eye. Maybe wink at her. Don’t leave her behind; take her along. Resolve to be best friends with her. Recognize that you like doing life with her. Invest in a healthy relationship with her.
Don’t insist that because it’s a new year the new you has to adopt a perky new outlook on life. It’s very possible that the perky outlook is entirely dependent on making sure the old you has a moment to catch up on laundry and take a nap or two after all the responsibilities she carried through the end of the old year.
You’re not behind. There’s no race to get everything into the tidy squares of a new planner lest you miss the magic of January. Instead, there is winter, when the natural world takes some time to slow and rest. Maybe the old you would benefit from meeting herself in the pause and considering some new ways to be more authentically who God called her to be.
He’s not asking for reinvention. He doesn’t want a new you. He loves the original you; he created it. He has a plan for your life and he isn’t working against some arbitrary calendar-driven deadline. You have time to just be in his presence. You have time to sit with compassion with the old you and hear what she has learned. You have time to embrace everything she hopes and to ask God to show you why he has inspired those hopes at this time.
You have time to be the beautiful person you were created to be.
Foss, whose website is takeupandread.org, writes from Connecticut.
