New Year, Same Problems: There is Wonderful Joy Ahead

“A new year doesn’t make hurt or problems vanish,” I wrote at the end of 2021, my heart heavy. Even just thinking back to that season hurts.

The last few months of that year were hard for me. Very hard. Bad news seemed to be trying to outdo bad news, and I dreaded every message that started with “I need to tell you something.”

Going into 2022, I knew that none of the situations were going to change soon.

I went into the new year carrying the same weight of anxiety, fear, grief, and hurt that I had left 2021 with. Passing into a new year didn’t make problems disappear.

Facing the New Year

While many people were busy making lifestyle changes and New Year’s resolutions, my new year started with things in my planner that I was dreading. It started with a lot of unknown and uncertainty.

What made it even harder was that a few of my friends were going through very difficult seasons as well (some way more difficult than what I was experiencing), which meant 2022 started with me watching them suffer from the things that had happened in the year before. Things I wanted to fix but couldn’t. I watched friends grieve. I watched them hurt and fear tomorrow. And my heart hurt with them.

The promise of a new year can mean a blank slate and a new beginning for some, but for others, the slate is still very much full.

Maybe you can relate. Maybe you too are dreading the new year. Maybe you are carrying more than you would want to. Maybe you are facing situations that won’t be changing anytime soon.

Friend, maybe you too are hurting.

How to Respond

Every year, I pray for a verse to hold onto in the months to come. The verse God gave me for 2022 was Romans 8:31: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (ESV)

At the end of 2021, I wrote down all the things I was dreading about the year to come. And then I wrote down Romans 8:31 under it. As hard as it was, and as much as it didn’t change how I was feeling, I purposely tried to respond to my problems with a truth that stands above it all: God is for me. Who can be against me?

Actually living what I believed on paper was hard. But writing it down was the first step.

There’s Joy Ahead

A few months prior, someone at church had given me a little card that said, “There is wonderful joy ahead.” I hung it up beside my bed, thinking it was pretty. I hung it up during a time when that was easy to believe, and it stayed there for the season which followed – a season where that, the promise of joy, was very hard to believe.

Four days into the new year I was emailing a friend, trying to put up a brave face. I ended up telling her honestly about how I was feeling. Her response hit home.

“I know this season has been really hard, but I promise you, this sadness and heartache you are feeling now will not last forever. God is the God of hope and healing, and I know He will bring you through this.”

For the first time in weeks, I realised that this season with its hurt and worry would end one day. Maybe not with a new year, but it would end. This was not a forever-season.

Friend, there is wonderful joy ahead. Maybe not on January first of the new year. Maybe not even in the next few months to come. But I promise you, it will get better.

One Step at a Time

In the first week of 2022, while journaling, I summed up my resolution for the season I was in, as a reminder to myself.

“So in summary, I’m getting through one day at a time, one moment at a time. And clinging to the fact that Jesus is returning soon. With every day that passes, the moment when this world and all it holds will be done with is closer. Before we know it, we’ll be dancing in the throne room and kneeling before our Lord, Saviour, Friend, High Priest, Perfect Lamb, and God. We’ll be worshipping Jesus, our Emmanuel.”

Friend, hold onto that hope.

Even if you’re facing the new year with a heavy load of fear or grief or hurt, remember: soon, yes, very soon, we’ll be free of that and worshipping our Emmanuel. The God who is with us and for us.

Write it down and say it to yourself until you believe it: God is for us, this hard season you are in will end, and no matter how you are feeling today, if you are a Child of God, there is wonderful joy ahead.

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