Happy New Year!
A new year marks Earth’s complete orbit around the sun, and is also referred to as it’s annual revolution around the sun. There’s something about this word revolution that came up in my mind as I was preparing to write this post today, and the more I researched its meaning, the more I was excited to share this thought with you:
Rather than thinking about this new year from the typical vantage point of resolutions, what if we see this new year as an opportunity for a new year revolution?
Before you join in with me in this direction, let’s take a look at what revolution means. The definition of revolution is "a sudden, radical, or complete change; completion of a course (as of years); a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something; a change of paradigm; the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course.” (source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revolution)
Whether we realized it or not, you and I are in a season of revolution. I’m not talking about fists in the air, loud shouts of defiance, or even Kirk Franklin’s 1990’s hit song that brings back fond memories as we recall the famous lyric, “Do you want a revolution?” I’m talking about change. Ready or not, the new year is upon us. Revolution is here. What will we do with this opportunity?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just go around last year’s mountains or situations with resolutions that are tossed to the side by March of this new year. In contrast, resolution means “the act or process of resolving; analyzing a complex notion into simple; the act of answering/solving the act of determining.” (source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resolutions)
In 2025, you and I have the opportunity to make complete, lasting change by fundamentally changing the way we think about or visualize the year ahead. As followers of Jesus, this change comes through renewing our minds in His Word and abiding in Him as our source of life.
Today as we embark on the beginning of a new year, it is my prayer that we embrace the new opportunities to know God and know ourselves in new ways. To often ask these questions in prayer and quiet time with Him:
“God, who are you?
God, who am I?”
As you seek and receive the answers to these two questions throughout the revolution of this year, and take to heart what you hear, I believe that a revolution can indeed take place.
Here’s to not your average New Year’s resolution, but a New Year’s Revolution.
Emonne Markland
