In four days, 2024 will be over. I don’t know how you feel about that. Maybe a sense of relief in closing a hard and unpleasant chapter. Maybe gratitude for a year that exceeded expectations and brought delight. Maybe even cynicism after a year of setbacks and disappointments. Wherever you find yourself as the curtains close on 2024, I want to share some thoughts on how you might finish it well.

Remember
Psalm 77.19–20

New Year’s festivities provide ample opportunity to avoid being alone with our thoughts. We can distract ourselves with meals, movies, board games, live sports and a litany of other options. However, we do ourselves a disservice if we don’t intentionally carve out time to reflect. Scripture shows us that the discipline of remembrance is vital for our joy in God and faithfulness to him. So, why not cast your mind over the past year and write down some things you are grateful to God for? He is worthy of your praise - and giving thanks blesses you even more than it blesses him.

You might think, “This has been a tough year. The last thing I need is to ruin the holidays by dredging up all the painful stuff”. But friend, choosing to remember can also help you savour all the ways God has been good to you despite the pain. As you take stock, you might begin seeing how your heavenly Father has worked amidst the hardship, bringing blessing, refining and sustaining you. Your lament might turn into thanksgiving. But even for those things for which there is no discernible reason to give thanks, remembering still serves a good purpose as it provides an opportunity for a Godward response.

Respond
1 Peter 5.6–7

The beauty of reflecting as a Christian is that you are not left helpless, even when you happen upon a hurt that bears the weight of an immovable boulder. No, you have your heavenly Father whose shoulders are broad enough and arms strong enough to lift the heaviest hurt. He calls you to cast your anxieties - alongside every disappointment, sorrow and sin - onto him. He has new mercies for you every new day and every new year.

You need not hide or run from the difficult realities of life, the grief or the areas of persistent failure. You need not throw up your hands in frustration. As you reflect, you can bring everything and anything to him in prayer, whether for the first or thousandth time. Why? Because he cares for you. He really does care. Enough to send his Son into this world of sin to die to rescue you. There is no safer place, no more hopeful place to bring your problems than to your Maker.

Rest
Psalm 3.3–4

What now? Processing the past year's joys, sorrows, successes and failures can be mentally and emotionally taxing work, but it is not without reward. Having deposited the year's reflections with God, you can rest. You can enjoy God himself. You can enjoy his good gifts, like family, meals, movies and board games. You can sleep. You can slow down, quieten your mind and approach the new year with a sense of peace, knowing you are not approaching it alone.