2026: The Grand Adventure!
It’s hard to believe that the holidays are already over. We have crossed over the threshold and finally made it into the new year. It may be needless to say that many (or may be all) of us have been anxiously waiting for this new beginning. We stand at the brink of new horizons, new opportunities, new endeavors and new adventures! And I would say that’s how I feel about the new year – I feel like I’m standing at the threshold of a Grand Adventure, but not a solitary one by any means. This year feels like a start of an intentional journey I want to go on with my loved ones, my family but above all else – with God.
This year, progressing into my thirties, I have felt a gentle nudging. A nudging toward thoughtful intentionality. It seems like part of my life before this stage was spent ‘surviving‘ and ‘reacting‘ to the situations of daily life, rather than ‘intentionally acting‘ and ‘embarking‘ upon the path I know I’m supposed to be walking on. There were goals and intentions I had over past many months (and years) which I didn’t achieve, and some on which I didn’t act on.
Yet, this is the blessing of the New Year. God in His Grace has provided another year, where we can forget the things of the past and start afresh. It is a consolation to know that not only He gives us a new year, He also gives us Himself as a Father, a Guide, a Friend and a Saviour, who walks with us along life’s narrow and winding road. He invites us to know Him as our Saviour, the Only One who can redeem us from our sins and failings, and who can help us walk the path we know we should walk in this new year.
The things we may be striving for in this new year can look like – growing in self-discipline, or putting away laziness and procrastination, or being good stewards of our time and money, or reading more books and so on. And although, there are new plans and new goals I have made in this new year, and there are times I’m faced with my own frailty and stubbornness which keeps me from achieving them, I know I have the Lord Jesus to lean on when I’m not able to do what I’m supposed to. He is my companion on this year’s journey which makes it a Grand Adventure! Not to say that He hasn’t been my companion in my previous years, He always has. But it’s this year where I’ve come to fully realize and comprehend this truth.
Friend, this is my encouragement for you: Whatever your plans are for this new year, call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to help you and to journey with you this year. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. – Proverbs 16:9
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
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. – John 8:31-32