All Things Have Become New

I don’t know about you, but I super love New Years Eve.

I definitely don’t celebrate it like I used to… you can for sure catch me going to bed at like 10 instead of my normal 9pm. But I still love the sentiment of the holiday.

I love that it follows the weird and awkward limbo after Christmas that no one really knows what to do with. I love that it’s sparklers and good food and glittery hats and football and family and friends to usher in yet another weird and awkward limbo of writing the wrong date. I love that Hollywood really plays up the spectacle that is a New Years Kiss and that teenagers and singles cling to its possibility (big LOL at 16-year old me). Yes, even with all the inevitably failed resolutions, I LOVE New Years. The sense of renewal and a fresh start, regardless of how doomed we may be to stick to our guns and goals, is so exciting to me! Its a chance to review ourselves and our lives and make adjustments where needed or wanted, a time to look forward with hope that we can inflict positive change on our own circumstances, an opportunity to let go of things of old and embrace the possibility of new.

And so it is only fitting that with this new year we will find ourselves studying the New Testament. In it we read of the coming of a man who changed the direction of history so much that we even structure the counting of each new year around His life. It is a record of Jehovah himself come to make all things new. An old law done away, a new one instituted. Sacrifices of old put to an end, a final, new sacrifice offered. The old letter of the law subdued by a holier spirit of the law. A New Testament, a new witness, a new covenant. Perfect for a new year.

I wonder if these new teachings were confusing at first. As Christ symbolically led those who considered him a rabbi and mentor up into a mount, to higher ground, a little closer to heaven, did they understand what was happening? What Jesus of Nazareth was saying? (Matthew 5)

Instead of simply not killing, avoid anger altogether and be quick to be agreeable. Rather than simply not commit adultery, mind your thoughts. Turn the other cheek, give freely, love your enemies. Don’t simply love those who love you, that’s easy. Step things up a little. Climb up onto this mount with me, learn about a more holy way with me, and get a little closer to heaven with me. Worry less about what you are doing and focus on who you are becoming. Focus on your heart.

Only those who put the effort in to follow him up the mount, only those willing to listen to and hear and heed his words, only those willing to let go of many parts of their current culture and habits would be changed that day.

So while we set goals for our relationships and aspire to get to the gym more often; while we pick out the number of books we want to read or amount of money we want to save or life milestones we want to reach; while we plan for the next 365 days of our life, may we factor in a walk up the mount with the one who has said, “Old things are done away, and all things have become new” (3 Nephi 12:47). He who has seen and understands the heartaches and failures and disappointments and unexpected changes and unfairness we may have experienced this past year and who offers us beauty for the ashes of 2022. I decided to make only 2 resolutions this year and focus them completely on changes in my heart; ways that I feel I need refining and polishing. I'm excited to take a few small steps up the mount.

So Happy New Year! I wish you a sense of renewal and new beginning. I hope you find peace and excitement and determination at this start of 2023 and that it lasts beyond January. I invite you to study the New Testament, perhaps for the first time or perhaps for the hundredth, and in it I hope you discover your own renewed witness of Christ and understanding of his new covenant with Israel. A covenant that has far less to do with checklists and doing better, and much more to do with your heart and becoming more like the man on the mount.