Kent Wilfong

Circuit Thoughts - Welcome To The New Year

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Welcome to the New Year. I hope everyone had a great time and made some wonderful memories. I’m excited about the opportunities this coming year will present. Aren’t you? Or are you looking at 2022 with trepidation and fear?

During this past holiday season, I realized something. In the moving of presents and taking of food to different places, as well as moving luggage, I realized that the more you attempt to carry, the slower you go.

So, to keep from moving slow in 2022, I’m going to take the advice of a certain cartoon character and “Let it go.” I’m going to do my level best to let 2021 go and keep it in history.

I mean, let’s face it, what good does carrying extra baggage do for you? The year 2021 has left us. In 2021 we filled bags with sorrow and happiness. We carried problems and solutions. We came into the year hoping we could do better, and for the most part we did.

Now 2022 is here, and we have a whole new load of baggage to carry. It makes no sense to keep on carrying 2021, when we have so much opportunity ahead for 2022. We need to look forward and stop looking back. The past can only teach us, it cannot be remade or rewritten. But the future, now there is a blank canvas that is ready to be painted on.

History is a wonderful teacher, and 2021 taught us many things. Some to our benefit and some to our loss but 2021 is still history. It cannot be changed, only learned from.

Here we have 2022, and now we can take the successes of 2021 and apply them. We can take the failures of 2021 and leave them. But how do you do this? Well, the place to start is…. wait for it, church! (Don’t tell me you didn’t see that coming.)

God is already in the future; thus, we only need to walk to him. In fact, Proverbs 20:24 tells us “Man’s steps are determined by the Lord, how can anyone understand his own way.” What that tells me is that, if I walk in God’s steps, 2022 will take care of itself.

To change things from what we were left with in 2021, we need to change. First, we need to get rid of the baggage of 2021. Next, we need to get on our knees in prayer as never before. Then we need to follow the commandments Christ gave us: love God, love neighbor, love one another. Finally, we need to open our eyes and see God’s image in everyone we meet while being the image bearer of God.

God is providing us with an opportunity to turn things around and make this coming year one for the books, but we must take part. If we can just turn ourselves over to God and let go of the past, then we can step into 2022 with the confidence of a redeemed people.