Ready, Set, Reset for 2026!
Happy New Year Orchard! We made it and now what?
That question will land differently for each one of us. Some of us have arrived in the New Year relieved that 2025 didn’t take us out. Some arrive grateful for love received, lessons learned, and doors that opened. Some of us arrive with the same problems from 2025 dragging into 2026, unfinished conversations, unmet hopes, habits that refuse to loosen their grip, and prayers that remain unanswered.
The new year does not erase what came before it. Life has a way of bringing things along for the ride. Some things we welcome. Some things we wish stayed behind. Each of us enters January with our story, whatever that story is. That said, a new year offers space to consider how our story will continue throughout the rest of the year. While we can’t control everything, we do have agency. God empowers us to make choices about how we live, what we will give our attention to, and where we will place our energy. Goals give language to those choices. Goals help us to identify how we want life to look and feel for us. They invite thoughtful decisions about time, relationships, faith, and how we live day by day in the year ahead. So, what will you give your time and energy to this year?
To help us think about what we will give our time and energy to, Psalm 90 offers this insight. It says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This invitation fits the beginning of a new year, drawing consideration to the way our days will be lived out this year and how faith meets us in the choices we make as we go.
As this year commences, the invitation is simple. Start where you are. Let Scripture have a seat at the table daily in your life. Let worship, rest, community be an intentional part of your plans. Goals do not require grand statements; they are found in small, everyday consistent choices. God will meet us in our consistency.
Remember as well, that “as we number our days,” wisdom also emerges from within community. We learn from one another. We are strengthened by time spent together, by conversation, by prayers prayed with each other, and by the service we share side by side. Commitment strengthens our faith, and community makes a world of difference as we walk with the Lord. Make every effort this year to remain in community with the house of faith.
Happy New Year. We made it. May 2026 be a year marked by wisdom, faith practiced intentionally, and God meeting us right where we are.
Cheers to 2026, God We Look To You,
Rev. Tam
|
