New Year, Eternal Perspective

At the dawn of a new year, it is common to stop and take stock, asking questions like:

• Did I accomplish what I hoped to last year?
• Did I fall short of something I wanted to do?
• Am I where I want to be in life?
• Am I becoming the kind of person I want to be?

These are all reasonable and responsible questions. Others often follow:

• What do I want to accomplish this year?
• What changes do I need to make in my habits or lifestyle?
• What areas of my life need growth or attention?

These questions matter. They are healthy and worth asking. But when we reflect this way, we usually limit our vision to only two points in time: last year and the year ahead. As this new year begins, it may be worth asking a deeper question, one that most of us try not to think about too often:

• Am I ready to die?

At first, that question may sound uncomfortable. Yet for most of Christian history, reflecting on mortality was not seen as unhealthy or excessive. It was seen as clarifying. It helped place everyday decisions within a larger horizon. The Heidelberg Catechism, a historic Christian teaching document, begins not with goals or self-improvement, but with life and death:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that, without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.

Therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready, from now on, to live for Him.

The catechism then asks a second question:

Q. What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A. First, how great my sins and misery are; second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.

For Christians, readiness for death is not about fear or speculation. It is about whether our lives are being shaped by the comfort we claim to believe. It invites honest self-examination.

If I were to die today and stand before the Judgment Seat of God, what would happen? Would Christ say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” or would He say, “Depart from Me; I never knew you”?

There is also a more everyday way to ask the same question. If I were to die today, who would gather to remember me, and what would they say? Would they testify to a life lived in faithfulness to Christ’s call, or would they testify to something else?

As this new year begins, I invite you to take a different perspective on New Year’s resolutions. Instead of making resolutions, stop and take a more eternal view. One faithful practice Christians have used for generations is prayerful confession. The following prayer from the Book of Common Prayer has shaped Christian self-examination for years:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Do not pray this prayer quickly and move on. Instead, pray it slowly, over multiple sessions, spending time in silence as you pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to make known to you the things you have done and the things you have left undone that were not the choices you should have made. Pray for guidance so that, in the new year, you would truly love God with your whole heart and serve your neighbor.

As you begin this New Year, make it one of intentional change. There is nothing wrong with losing the twenty pounds you gained over Christmas or being more faithful about calling your mother. Both are good and important things. But take the eternal view. Are you living as Christ has called you to live? Are you living in such a way that, when you stand before the Judgment Seat of God, you will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? Will the people who gather to mourn your passing from this life to the next be able to testify to a life lived in service to Christ and neighbor?