New Year 2021: Ideas to Put the “New” Back In

While living in Uganda, my language acquisition developed to an equivalent of that drunken-sailor lurch of a new toddler. That is, my ability to speak resembled lurching, grinning, and occasionally falling on my rear.

And of course just because you can speak a language doesn’t mean you use it in the same ways. I’d occasionally get weird looks for wishing someone Merry Christmas (Seku Kulu enungi!) in December. Apparently Ugandans keep this phrase pretty much for Christmas day.

On the other hand, Omwaka omulungi!–“Happy New Year!”–was wished to me whenever someone would see me the first time in the new year, even if you saw the person in, say, March.

I had to ask a Ugandan friend about what I perceived: Was New Year’s actually a bigger holiday than Christmas?

My friend affirmed this. She explained that to Ugandans, to make it to a new year was a gift they couldn’t take for granted.

Average yearly take-home pay is $12K; average life span when we arrived was 52; risk for infectious disease is considered “very high”. Repeatedly in conversations, Ugandans referred to life as “struggle”.

I’ve thought about that as so many of us laugh about 2020 finally. Ending.

This author makes the case that one of the lessons of 2020 is that, in fact, our ingratitude–“How many things did we fail to recognize as God’s blessings in 2019?”

When Looking Ahead Doesn’t Look Good

After a hard year, I’ve tended to have a sense of foreboding, of glass-is-half-empty brand of hand-wringing.

Personally, in my haste to shuck off the loss and grief and polarization of this year, I tend to space the 1,095 or so meals God sat before me. The 36.5 million times or so my heart beat, even as I slept. The fact that I have four living children-turning-adults, running around and creating healthy, generally laughter-filled havoc every day of the year.

And all the delightful, advantageous packages I partake of as a member of the developed world.

That morning by morning, new mercies I see.

I tend to shove some events into the category of “I want to forget” instead of training the eyes of my heart to see God in all that happened. As C.S. Lewis pens in The Magician’s Nephew,

What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.

Even in those inevitable unresolved areas, their “happily ever after” still unwritten—I can trust he was there. That his faithfulness was indeed great.

And clutching a list of gratitudes, I step with a little more confidence, a little more faith.

Questions to Help You Thoughtfully Begin New Year 2021

In light of this, I’ve scraped together some ideas to help us both thoughtfully start a New Year 2021 with trust.

A note: Before you begin, think about 2-3 “feeling” words that would describe where you’re at right now.

Why? Because it does color how you think. Walking last Sunday, I realized some embarrassment and fear I was feeling from a small (I would have said inconsequential) event that day filtered my thoughts and goal-setting and prayers.

If you’re feeling ambitious or afraid or low, use that knowledge to temper your goals.

6 Questions to Help You Remember

Tip: Process these before the below “6 Questions to Look Forward and Set Goals.”

1. For what am thankful from this past year? What am I most thankful for?

2. Month by month, what were the most important things that happened to me? How did I respond, or how am I still responding (from the inside out)?

3. What have been/are the greatest challenges in each area of my life (spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, mentally, professionally, missionally, as a parent…)?

   As I read this morning, suffering is key to understanding and reflecting the heart of God (see 2 Corinthians 4:6-18). He knows death is at the heart of love and resurrection.

4. What’s one character trait this past year has exposed that I seriously want to change to love God and people better? What’s one powerful step I could take toward change?

5. How have I most significantly experienced God this year? What names of God do I identify most with right now?

6. What do I long for most in this moment?

Interested in taking this deeper? I love the questions in this Annual Examen.

6 Questions to Look Forward, Set Goals, and Prepare for New Year 2021

1. What are three areas in which I’d love to see change? What are reachable goals I could set toward those ends?

2. Which significant events do I anticipate in the next year?

3. What am I most concerned about? (Consider reading the following to help speak truth to yourself.)

   • Proverbs 3:5-6, 16:9
   • Luke 14:28
   • Romans 12:2
   • 1 Corinthians 10:31
   • Ephesians 2:10, 3:20-21
   • Philippians 2:3-4
   • Colossians 3:23
   • James 1:5-6.

4. How am I most motivated for the long-term?

5. Who do I feel compelled to care for in the next year? What could that look like practically?

6. In what do I most need to persevere, to “not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)?

If you’re into this kind of thing, check out 7 Journaling Prompts for a New Year’s of the Soul. Want to explore some life-coaching questions? Consider looking through these. 

6 Tasks to Kick Off 2021 Right

1. 1. Clean or organize something that drives you bananas.

      I personally started with our bedroom, but it felt so good, I kept going. The laundry room and game closet have recently been conquered. Onward!

   2. Do something generous that doesn’t bring fanfare.

   3. Decide on one target behavior/underlying character to address with each of your kids over the next year.

   4. Forgive someone (…maybe again).

   5. Reach out to someone who needs connection.

   6. Do a serious purge of material belongings that don’t bring you life or joy, or that you haven’t used in a year.

Need ideas? Grab these ideas to simplify your closet–and these to teach kids simplicity.

Thankfully, I know Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Ask with me for his presence to go in front of us into 2021.

Happy New Year, friends.

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