Hey, it’s me again. I ambushed you last Monday on Christmas morning, so I thought I’d do it again today. You might give me five minutes between parades and football. As usual, I’m here to ambush your agenda and give you something to think about.

Today, here’s my headline: Will 2024 be your New Year, or just your Next Year?

There’s a good chance that you’ve matured past the New Years resolution routines most people engage for a few years and then abandon like an old-era flip-phone. That’s understandable, but it poses the tough question: what’s the point of flipping the calendar unless you’re planning to dedicate the days to pursuits promising a stepped-up return on the investment of your increasingly valuable time?

Do your own research: Google “What’s New?” You’ll get 349 million hits. Then, find someone waiting in front of the barista counter this week and pose the same question. The likely (honest) answer, “Nothing, really.” Based on the entries on their personal calendar, they’re going about life in 2024 in the same way they did in ’23. Nothing’s new, and the lack of gusto in their personal flywheel is proof positive. 

What if they answer your question, and then turn it back to you? “What’s new?” is a friendly greeting that can become confrontative if it exposes an uncomfortable stability. Shouldn’t your answer paint a backdrop of faith-infused anticipation of great things, out on your near-term horizon?

Let me throw some truth at you: God isn’t into “old.” For him, traditions are do-overs that demonstrate an absence of innovation. One of his personal titles is “Creator” (it’s on his first business card, back in Genesis 1:1), and he’s into crafting unique masterpieces rather than merchandising mass-produced reproductions. 

You may stretch to frame your future with 5-Star anticipation, but God has no reticence about portraying His vision for the future with “New!” splashed across his headlines. Isaiah caught God on a hot mic, laying out his heart for the days ahead: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

You’ll have some time between games and guacamole today. Let me unleash your child-of-God genius with a challenge that calls-out your potential for greatness, given the new spiritual DNA that makes you his transformed progeny. Here it is: How are you planning to partner with God in 2024 in a way that will unleash his best work, in and through you?

Direct quotes become indisputable; don’t listen to me, listen to him: “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Revelation 21:5) If you’re satisfied with 2024 unfolding as a high-class replication of 2023, you don’t need him to pull that off. Mere humans – all around you – are going about the business of surviving and/or succeeding with no need for divine partnership (even friends with whom you share a saving faith).

Pretend I’m at your preferred coffee oasis tomorrow, just behind you in the wait line. We recognize one another, and I ambush you with the question-of-the-week: “So, what’s new” What will you have to say for yourself?

I’m pointing my virtual finger at you for dramatic emphasis: an answer that calls out anything less than a “Wow!” in reply is beneath your potential, since you have the Spirit of the Creator of the Universe living within you. He’s ready to enable any creative initiative in 2024 that is in keeping with the life he has called you to live! 

Are you going to settle for allowing 2024 to be yet-another below-potential year? Or, is this going to be the one that you’ll be remembering – and talking about! – 100 years from now, in Eternity?

Bob Shank