I DON’T make New Year resolutions simply because I can never keep them. But a New Year can help kick start new beginnings and a new season — and I’m up for that.
Instead of New Year resolutions, I tend to choose a word. Some refer to it as, ‘one word for the year’ or ‘one-word resolutions.’ The idea is that you choose one word that captures how you want to step into the New Year, and your aim to focus on it.
There were times during this year when we felt the chill of long and dark days. It was as if we were living in CS Lewis’s Narnia: a place where it is winter all the time, but never Christmas.
My word for 2021 is Resilience. I do not believe we are born resilient. It is often the curveballs thrown at us throughout our lives that tend to develop a deep resilience within us. Nothing we ever go through is wasted.
We cannot deny 2020 was difficult. There were lots of changes, lots of uncertainty, lots of devastation, lots of tears and lots of growth. There were times during this year when we felt the chill of long and dark days. It was as if we were living in CS Lewis’s Narnia: a place where it is winter all the time, but never Christmas.
This time last year, I chose a phrase – ‘Solvitur Ambulando.’ You may remember me sharing it in one of my previous columns. It means, ‘It is solved as we walk.’ I had no idea how real and important this phrase would be to me. I had to walk through some pretty dark days. We all did.
Happy birthday Mum.
— Karen Sethuraman (@KarenSethuraman) January 3, 2021
She had me when she was 18.
She was my mum and dad.
She raised me on her own.
I loved having a ‘young’ mum.
I always thought she would live to a good old age.
I miss you. We miss you. pic.twitter.com/A42Fqj7y17
Having the strength to keep going is not always easy. We need resilience. Resilience is about getting back up no matter how many times we get knocked to the floor. It is about continuing to put one foot in front of the other, and refusing to throw in the towel. Despite feeling discouraged, disheartened and weary, we choose to move forward anyway. A friend once called resilience the ‘gift of grit’.
These are days for resilience. Paul reminds us to ‘not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up’ (Gal 6:9). We step into 2021 with Covid, with questions, with worry and with uncertainty. But we also step into this New Year with a choice. We can choose to stay put in our ditches of discouragement or we can let resilience rise.
Don’t give up. I pray as we step into this New Year, God will bless us with the ‘gift of grit'.
