A Gospel‐Shaped Approach To The New Year

Why a Gospel-Shaped approach to the New Year is much better

—by Tendai Chitsike

If we evaluate the assumptions around which popular culture looks at a New Year, what beliefs are we likely to nd? Wishful thinking is often high on the list. Underpinning this belief is often a lot of ‘feel good’ emotion and supposed intuition. This is often evidenced by statements such as: “I know this is going to be a good year, I can just feel it.”Also tagging along such beliefs is a selfcenteredness that can take on many forms. For some, it is propped up by motivational self-help and is full of positive a rmation about how this is going to be ‘my year’. For others, it is consumed with self-loathing that recounts their failures, with no hope in sight.

Christians are not immune

As Christians, we are not automatically immune from the subtle ways in which these beliefs can dominate our thinking and behaviour. If we are honest, we often imbibe these same assumptions, and then proceed to coat them with out-of-context Bible verses so they can ‘ t in’ to our Christian world. But if we look at previous years, haven’t we become disappointed when, after the New Year’s celebrations have died down and our positive a rmations haven’t borne fruit, we feel as though things did not go our way, and we begin to question the goodness of God? If we have experienced this, surely it is time to ask ourselves: isn’t there a better way? Grounded in reality Thankfully, there is. It comes from the very centre of Christianity – the Gospel itself. In the resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of the Gospel, declaring the following in vv 3-4: “For what I received I passed on to you as of rst importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

For Christians in rst century Corinth, the Gospel was just as much an issue of rst importance as it is for us in January 2022. How then could this impact the way we view a New Year?

First and foremost, unlike the wishful thinking that dominates

popular culture, the Gospel is based on truth, and in particular the true events of the cruci xion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. We can enter the New Year grounded in reality, with no need to engage in wish ful lment. Secondly, it is not swayed or a ected by emotion. I have often observed that optimists generally enter the New Year ‘feeling great’, while pessimists enter with a sense of foreboding. Thankfully, because of the Cross and the resurrection, we need not be a slave to our emotions, whether we are naturally optimistic or pessimistic. Now, we have a sure hope that is unchanging, a hope that Unlike the wishful thinking has gone through the worst that life could that dominates popular culture, the Gospel is in ict on the Cross and that death could not conquer. Through this lens, it makes little di erence whether you ‘feel great’ or based on truth. anxious about the New Year. The Gospel liberates us The Gospel thankfully also liberates us from the ball-and-chain of self-centeredness. In this new life in Christ, we no longer have to orbit around the planet of self. Now, Christ is our very life, and Paul therefore reminds us to keep believing in Him. With Christ at the centre, I can nd freedom from the pride of self-worship or the despair of self-loathing. In addition, we can approach the New Year with both humility and faith. Humility, because as James reminds us, if we don’t know what will happen tomorrow, we truly don’t know wh pen in an entire year; and faith, bec Christ has overcome the grave, we c part of his overcoming church in 20 what may. For these reasons and m the Gospel remain of primary impo 2022 unfolds. A Blessed New Year to TENDAI CHITSIKE – Pastor of Every Nation Church in Makhanda. Email: engrahamstown@gmail.com