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Today is December 31, 2018. We’re swiftly coming upon a new year. That’s what we’ve been accustomed to thinking. The little blue ball on which we reside is about to complete a 365-day revolution around the life-supporting star we call our sun. We think because this annual event is about to come to completion, new and fresh things are about to happen.

Consider this: you’ll carry most of what started in your life in 2018 into 2019. You’ll have the same body, the same family, the mortgage, the same old same old everything for the most part. The 365-day revolution around our star will start again, but there will be no line of demarcation in the heavens that will separate the old year from the new. Everything will be continual. Your life will be continual. To use football jargon, which is probably good for this time of year, there’ll be a line of scrimmage, no mark on the solar turf.

Knowing what we know about life, that it’s a continual process, moving along through time and space, why do we mark the 365-day cycle as a time to make improvements, turn over a new leaf? In think it would be safe to say that most of those resolutions we come up with at the end of the year are concocted to address issues we’ve been struggling with all year. Why then, do we think a new solar cycle is going to encourage us to do a better job at addressing them? Think how much sooner our lives would be improved if we adjusted where necessary soon after the cracks occur. Don’t wait for some magical moment, one-minute past midnight to starts making improvements.

Here is something I wrote and posted to my Facebook page three years ago, that I’ve been trying to follow as a personal rule:

As I review 2015, I can’t help but be thankful for so many things. Despite my imperfect self, good things were put in my path by the awesome God in whom I trust and believe. However, in my review, I must be honest and admit that there were some things I could have done better. The good thing though is that if God gives me 2016, I can do those things not done well in 2015 better. Well, I see something here: I don’t need to make a New Year’s resolution, I just need to live life better. (That’s not a resolution, that’s a commitment to write a better life story.”) And with God’s help, I can do it, and so can you. Here’s to a better year in 2016, in the Lord!

Happy new solar cycle to all in 2019!

I’m old and blessed…hope you will be too.