These early days of January are transitional, as we learn to abandon the habit of dating items with 2020 and begin to use 2021.
The name given this first month of the year is derived from the Roman god Janus. He was imagined with a double-faced head by means of which he could look two directions at the same time, with one face able to see backward and the other to see forward. After the manner of its namesake, January is an apt time for all of us to look back, as well as to look ahead.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this two-directional looking in Philippians 3 when he testified, “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (vv. 13–14).
Looking back
In looking back on the year just ended, no doubt many of us can think of things we’d like to forget.
The backward look is probably a mixture of pride, gladness and gratitude mingled with a measure of regret, sadness and disappointment. In the negative column, there may be a lingering sense of incompleteness or even failure.
Perchance the backward look serves as a reminder that our faith is not as strong as we would like, our love not as consistent as it could be, our service not as self-forgetting as it ought to be, our attitudes not always as Christlike as He desires them to be. Like Paul, there may be a place for forgetting those things which are behind as we face forward to the year ahead.
On the positive side, lest tempted to rest on our proverbial laurels or experience a sense of having arrived, we might need also to forget last year’s successes after having been properly grateful.
Looking ahead
In looking forward to the new year, we might do well to adopt some of the characteristics with which the apostle looked ahead in his life. We possibly need the power of a concentrated commitment that says, “One thing I do” (Phil. 3:13).
We might also look ahead with an attitude of eager striving, such as Paul expressed in that same verse as “reaching forward to those things which are ahead” or in the next verse as, “I press toward the goal” (Phil. 3:14).
While the forward look could have its mixture of uncertainty, anxiety and foreboding, it can also be one of anticipation, challenge and hope.
May God be with us all as we move from one year to the next.
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