Here we are, awaiting the turn of another year, working through the dichotomy of "resolving" the old year with all its twists and turns and determining in each of our hearts what we will "resolve" for the New Year. We've all got our favorites that we process annually, and it's good to do so.

It's also good to recognize that there are TWO sides to "resolve", not just one. When it comes to the New Year, most of us think about "resolving" in terms of making strong decisions, usually to be better at something we've not been so good at.

The other aspect of "resolving" gets lost in the New Year; it has to do with resolving in the sense  of releasing those things that haven't turned out the way we've wanted in the last year. We all have a number of those things that we just plain want to forget!

However, I want to submit that we too quickly dismiss the real impact of the pain and disappointments of any previous year we leave behind. We hope that the fresh sense of a New Year and the good things it may bring will take the place of the bad of last year.

Experience tells me that in our efforts to forget the bad and forge ahead, what we are doing in reality is packing those things in a trunk at the back of our minds. I want to encourage you to do something a bit different with those things this year.

By all means, we ought to celebrate heartily the good things that God has brought about in our lives, not just in the coming of a new year, but at all times. The Bible encourages us to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18) If you're ever wondering what God's will for you is, you can know that it always includes at least one constant element .... thankfulness.

Let's celebrate and thank God for the great things He's done in our lives over the last year. At the same time, as we travel the journey of the passing of the old year and celebrating the new one, I encourage you to take some time to actually grieve and mourn the things you leave behind.

Many of us would want to cite Philippians 3:13-14 here, where Paul writes "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." We want to believe that Paul is encouraging us to just forget anything that is in our past.

However, the Bible is also filled with encouragements to remember and honor our past. It's our past that truly informs our future, so if we refuse to understand and embrace it, then what God wants to do in our future will be weakly understood and informed.

Matthew Henry's commentary of what Paul encourages about forgetting what is behind  is that "He (Paul) forgot the things which were behind, so as not to be content with past labours or present measures of grace." In other words, there are things that we carry now in a way that keeps us comfortable or content with what God has already done. As we grow in Him, God would not want us to carry things that in any way that risk our future of growth in Him.

I believe  there is an active element of choice on our part in "forgetting what is behind". God would urge us to take the time to truly "resolve" those things we haven't understood or that have taken place or turned out completely different from what we had desired or planned.

That active element marks our continued partnership in the activity of God's work in us. It deserves the time and attention of asking for and allowing Jesus to give us the grace to fully resolve, rather than pretending that we are just forgetting about them or forgetting about them in a way that we can bring it up later.

                                Pressing on toward to goal with you...