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Happy new year!

What a joy the new year brings! It’s such a time of renewal! It’s a time of rebirth! It’s an opportunity to forget what lies behind and press on toward the prize. I love the new year. It’s a period to wash away the weight of the old and accept the blessing of the new.

The new year is very much like a baptism, wouldn’t you say? Let me share a few of my thoughts on baptism:

Initiation

We often speak of ‘baptism by fire’ when we refer to a harsh introduction to something new, like a job. I wouldn’t exactly refer to the new year as a ‘baptism by fire’, but the newness of it affords us an opportunity to take a step into the new, to dismiss fears and to launch into new territory.

Cleansing

Stepping into what’s new allows us the opportunity to wash away whatever has been holding us back and separating us from our goals. I suppose new year resolutions are a bit of a cleansing: wiping the slate clean and starting with new objectives, new goals towards a better you.

Embrace and Acceptance

In baptism, there is an embracing of the new and an acceptance into the new that takes place. There is a welcome into the family, into a covenantal relationship. No longer are we cast aside like exiles, but we are embraced and included in the family. So too, in the new year, we embrace the new, stepping into it, many times, with those who are near and dear to us.

New Direction

Not that we have much control over it, but a new year means that we are not going back in the direction from which we came. We must keep pressing forward into the future, into what’s next. The new direction signifies leaving behind the things that weighed us down, the things that cheated us of our joy. New direction is a perfect segway into my next point:

Hope

I don’t know that many of us enter the new year full of despair and hopelessness. It’s a time when our hope is topped-up, when it’s boosted. It’s a time when we stride forward not with our heads hanging low, but with our heads held high. The new year is an opportunity to reach for the sky.

Enlightenment

New year = enlightenment. New secrets will be revealed, new truths will be established and new stories will be told. The new year opens the door to the light and shuts the door to the darkness.

Good News

With so much ahead of us, we await the good news. We look forward to the opportunity to fill our journal with good stories, good news, hopeful events and stories that make our hearts sing.

So, we have all been baptised, and if baptised, we are now new creatures. Tell me, what does this new year, this baptism mean for you? Drop me a line and share your thoughts.

Until next time: