You probably looked at the title for this blog and thought, “Huh? ‘Tis the season sounds like Christmas, but that’s over.” And you would be right, of course. However, now that the holidays are behind us, and Christmas decorations are being put away for another year, ‘tis the season for decluttering, organizing, and resetting things in our lives. This doesn’t have to be limited to our closets, basements and garages. In each of our lives, there is work to be done within ourselves to declutter, organize and reset.

At the start of the new year, lots of people make resolutions to get more exercise, eat more healthy meals, live a more balanced life, etc. All of these are good things, of course, but the challenge is to keep up with the resolutions that we make, sustaining these for the long haul. I did a little research on what percentage of people actually keep their New Year’s resolutions. As you might guess, it’s not good. Only 9% of people actually keep their resolutions throughout the entire year (3 Proven Strategies for Sticking to New Year’s Resolutions | Psychology Today). An even more telling statistic is that 88% of people give up on their resolutions after just two weeks, leading to what is now called “Quitter’s Day” (Still keeping your New Year's resolution? Most have already given up, studies show | FOX 13 Tampa Bay). Ouch – that hurts.

Within this last year, my wife has retired from her career as an educator. Since then, ‘tis the season to go through drawers, closets, and boxes throughout the house, all of which needs to be done without question. The purpose here is to sift through all of the accumulated stuff from many years and discard what is no longer needed. I come from a long line of packrats, so this whole undertaking makes me a little jittery. Because I have expressed concern about what might get thrown away, the gentle threat has been made to go through my boxes and files when I’m not around. Yikes! When it comes to decluttering, organizing and resetting things like this, there are typically three categories: toss, donate, and keep. Some of the accumulated stuff is junk, pure and simple. It’s not worth keeping, and it’s certainly not anything that anyone else would want, so that stuff goes in the trash. Other things that are unwanted but still in usable condition can be donated to charitable organizations. And then there is the third category: things that you choose to hold onto for a variety of reasons. This whole process has helped me realize how much stuff we carry around with us in life. Often, we don’t even remember what we have squirreled away in boxes and storage bins. Out of sight, out of mind. If we don’t even know that we have it, will we miss it if it’s gone? Probably not. And yet the packrat within me cries out: “But I might need that stuff someday!” Sigh… how hard it can be to give up our stuff.

Is there a spiritual dimension to all of this? I believe there is. How much accumulated “stuff” do we carry around with us – stuff that is not life-giving, but in fact is detrimental to life and faith? Things like old grievances and grudges that we just can’t seem to let go of. Guilt from something we did (or didn’t do) that comes back to haunt us. Fear of failure that holds us back from exploring new pathways and opportunities to connect with others and be a blessing in life. Being so overly busy that there is no time to reclaim all that God in Christ has done for us, and so remaining stagnant in faith. So much junk in our life that needs to be thrown out. And what better time to do this than right now at the start of a new year? In some cultures, on New Year’s Eve people throw out things they want to get rid of, pitching these into a big pile that is then set on fire! A neighborhood bonfire, if you will, to symbolically burn up painful reminders of all the junk in life that we need to get rid of so that we can move forward.

‘Tis the season for fresh starts, in life and in faith. The good news of great joy that is the birth of Jesus is not limited just to the Christmas season. We need that good news throughout the entire year. God’s gift of his own Son is that fresh start that gives new life to the world. Jesus entered into our broken world and our broken lives to be Immanuel, God-with-us (Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:22-23). Jesus became one of us in every respect, except for sin. He knows full well all of the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, the exhilaration and exhaustion, of what it means to be human. He understands what we go through and experience because he himself has gone through it and experienced it. We have a God who gets it, and that is enormously comforting to us who struggle with resolutions and who find it hard to get rid of stuff. Jesus invites us to come to him in all of our need; to seek his face and call upon his Name, trusting in the gift of his saving love. He promises to give life that is full and abundant (John 10:10), and peace which passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

May this New Year bring with it blessings in abundance from the hand of the Lord.