2022 and You

by Brett D. Heintzman

New years are not new. Have we learned that yet?

If you’re like me you’ve gone through seasons and years where you looked forward to the new year as if a magical curtain is opened and new, fresh opportunities awaited, drawing to a close the difficulty of the previous year. That sounds incredible but does not align with reality.

The only thing that changes about the year is the number. When the bowl games are over and the celebrating gives way to the usual rhythms of life, we soon discover that things are very much the same.

Perhaps 2021 has “not been good to you” (as if the year really has that kind of power). So what about 2022 and you? What can we do in advance of the new number to ensure we are good to the new year no matter how “good” or “bad” the “year” is to us? Really the answer has always been the same.

It has to do with 2022, you, and your view.

I can’t change 2021, and I can’t control 2022, but I can work on me — or should I say I can let the Word of God do its work in me. Letting the Word of God into my heart unlike any other time is the perfect antidote to a time unlike any other in history. Our heroes of the faith are those people who rose to extraordinary spiritual heights amid lowly depths of earthly trouble and depravity. We can be heroes of the faith in the unwritten story of 2022. In order to do so, however, we need to lay down some practices and take up godly habits.

2022-and-you heroes are living sacrifices

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2).

With each new morning we offer ourselves to the day. Sometimes we offer a disgruntled spirit, dis-ease, unrest, complaint, anger, frustration and the like. We must attain to the renewing of our minds rather than the patterns of this world. Lay down the partisan politics and agenda-driven messaging in favor of a more excellent way.

2022-and-you heroes display the fruit of the Spirit

You know this list from Galatians 5, right? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Living this way, in step with the Holy Spirit, is not an exercise in convenience. Giving full vent to our emotions is “easy.” Living in the Spirit is a life of surrendered discipline. 2022 and you can be a year of venting, angst, and trouble, or it can be a year of patience, gentleness, and self-control.

Lay down the ways of the world in exchange for the ways of the Spirit of God. His path — the narrow path — leads to life and peace.

2022-and-you heroes are those who refresh others

As I think back through my 2021-and-me year, I can guarantee that I’ve not always been “refreshing” to others. How about you?

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” (Proverbs 11:25). Perhaps the Word of God holds truth for us that the refreshment we seek comes as we are a source of refreshment for others. Why not start 2022 with a determination to be a refreshment to others? Pray with others. Love others. Withhold unnecessary squabbles over nonessential matters. Speak blessings, not curses. Offer assistance to others when you are able. Speak with encouragement. Have someone’s back instead of talking behind it. Be a friend.

There is much more we could add, but we get the point, right? 12 a.m. January 1, 2022, is not a portal into some magical realm where everything in our world comes into alignment. No. Rather the Word of God is a portal into transformation that brings a “new” you and me into 2022.

In closing, let me suggest that this kind of living truly makes a difference. Cynical thinking may say, “What difference would it make? The rest of the world will go on as it is.” Yes, the world will be the world. But as for you and me, we live to honor our King — Jesus, Emmanuel. We live by a different script. We carry a different banner. We think with the mind of Christ. That makes a difference to everyone you encounter — a huge difference.

That’s a 2022-and-you worth living.

May the blessings of the Lord be with you as you live in step with the Holy Spirit in 2022.

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