Children, it is the last hour. (1 Jn 2:18a)
This is the final day of 2016. In several more hours, we will be celebrating a New Year, filled with new promise and new hope.
When we come to the end of things, we often look back to see where we have been. We look at our struggles. We remember our hopes. We celebrate our victories even as we mourn our losses.
The end of a year should not fill us with sadness or dread, though. The end of the year should fill us with hope for what is ahead. Next year is a year of dreams, a year of hopes, a year of accomplishments just waiting to be completed.
In order to realize those accomplishments, we need to prepare ourselves. That was one of the reasons for the idea of New Year’s Resolutions. They were ways to focus someone on a goal once again. As humans, we can become distracted far too easily. We need to do things to refocus ourselves once in a while.
At this “last hour” of the old year, I would encourage you to look ahead in your personal lives and look ahead in your spiritual lives. What would you like to accomplish this year?
Once you answer that question, you will be in a better position to plan what it is you need to do to accomplish your hopes and dreams.
This is the last hour. A new hour dawns. What do you need to do in order to embrace the new hour as completely as possible?
FAITH ACTION: Take some time today to make some good, realistic spiritual resolutions for the New Year ahead of you.