And Now It Begins
Four days ago, we turned the page on the kitchen calendar from December 2025 to January 2026. It seems we've finally gotten used to writing 2025 on our checks, and now we must learn to write 2026. While well-established routines will continue, the reality of change will require adjustments to our lives. Still, God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge of the end of time (Matthew 24:36; Acts 17:31) has afforded us this new beginning. As with all new things of immeasurable value, it is our responsibility to manage our opportunities with exquisite care!
Heightened expectations often motivate our ambitions for a while, but the slow development of these desires soon stifles any hope of success. Of the works we are commanded to add to our faith (2 Peter 1:1-10), patience is the item we need “right now”. If we understood that “patience” means “endurance,” we’d first condition ourselves with strengthening exercises (Ephesians 3:16), which would better enable us to endure the trying times in the journey to success. But we fear the “pain” of exercise. Muscles we have allowed to become weak may cramp and hurt during these strengthening exercises, but if we wish to reach the desired success, we must begin and count the “pain as gain.” (See Romans 5:1-5)
I’m not speaking physically, but spiritually! Regardless of one’s physical strength, age will decrease physical power (Ecclesiastes 12). But the soul is a completely different matter! Paul told Timothy, “But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8) A brother in Christ I greatly appreciated would often remind us, “It takes a spiritual mind to please God.” (Romans 8:6) But unless that mind is “exercised” to discern good and evil (Hebrews 5:14), that mind/soul will soon deteriorate and die – lost! Growing hurts! We call that pain “growing pains” and expect it physically. We need to anticipate it spiritually until we have successfully strengthened ourselves to withstand the assaults of evil on our souls. But you can’t reach that strength unless you begin the exercise – now, not later!
We may hear some prefacing their defense of actions and words with, “Last year …” as though “last year” is the standard by which they speak and act in this year. Let’s be reminded of Jesus’ statement, “Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:32) She and her family were commanded, “Don’t look back,” (Genesis 19:17). She looked back and immediately became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). The lesson is this: look forward, not backward, in your journey toward eternal life! To the point, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)
Again, souls must begin now to accomplish that forward vision! Unless you are younger than twenty-six years, you have crossed the timeline of the century mark separating the 1900s from the 2000s. We’ve experienced changes from fiction to reality. We’ve grown from the days of the fictional Dick Tracy talking watch to its reality. We’ve grown from the fiction of Jack Armstrong and space travel to its reality. We have grown from the mystical “thinking machine” to the reality of artificial intelligence. Why, then, have so many failed to journey from the fictional mindset that says the pleasures of the earthly realm are eternal to the reality that only life in Christ Jesus is the assured joy of the soul? (Read Ephesians) May I suggest they have either failed to begin that journey or failed to begin strengthening their souls to endure that journey? Either way, they failed to begin!
Undoubtedly, if God wills that time continue, 2026 will contain both blessings and challenges. Blessings are graciously received – but sometimes hard to extend (Matthew 7:12). Challenges are always foreboding, but the Christian refuses to let fear rule the soul (Hebrews 13:5-6). The path of life travels through hills and valleys (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Let’s begin to appreciate the beauties of both as we walk this path hand in hand with Jesus! As one wise man observed, “You can’t appreciate the majesty of the mountain until you view it from the valley; and you can’t appreciate the beauty of the valley until you see it from the summit of the mountain!”
Let’s be grateful for this new year, now already four days old. Let’s be gracious in our use of each moment, using those precious moments for the honor and glory of God. You can’t waste time! Each one of us must begin now to assure our hearts before Him (1 John 3:19). 2026 has begun … and now, so must we begin!