A new year is nigh, so we at Children of the Wells wanted to collect some of the thoughts on our mind as 2015 approaches. Enjoy a little look into our end-of-year psyches.
The best book I read this year was, surprisingly, not a YA novel but the biography Unbroken, which I also saw in the theater when it came out on Christmas Day. Just FYI, the movie is not at all exaggerated and, in fact, tones down what Louis Zamperini went through, surviving weeks on a raft at sea only to end up tortured in a Japanese POW camp. It’s just such an incredible story. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly encourage you to do so.
I also recently rewatched the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. It had been a few years since my last viewing, and I’m not sure I’d ever been quite so touched as I was this time around. Maybe it’s that I now have kids, I don’t know. I definitely see the world differently than I used to. George Bailey’s feelings of failure really resonated with me (I’m ruining my children!) while, at the same time, I could see the bigger picture and the personal sacrifices he made to help others. It’s so interesting to think of how the world we live in might be different with the total absence of even just one of us. One life affects so many, and whether that’s positive or negative is up to us.
Put these two stories together, one theoretical and one actual but both resounding with truth, and you have a powerfully inspiring and hopeful message. It’s a good way to end one year, putting the mistakes of the past behind you, and find inspiration for another.
Nick:
In recent years, one of my New Year’s “traditions” has been to spend the long, long night with twenty-plus youth. (In case I have never mentioned it, besides torturing Calea in my free time, I also run my church’s youth ministry.) Now, before the first youth all-nighter a few years ago, I could count the number of times I had stayed up for 24 hours at a stretch on one hand, with a few fingers missing. I was the guy who went to bed at 10:30 every night during college.
Despite the long hours and relentless sensory input, which an introvert like me does not always welcome, it really is an honor and pleasure to ring in the new year with so many young people, many whom I’ve gotten to know well. If you would have told me 10 years ago that this is how I’d be spending my New Year’s, I would have called you crazy. Snuggled at home for a classic Doctor Who or Twilight Zone marathon, maybe, but ringleader of 12 hours of Grog, Mafia, board games, dodgeball, and movies?
That’s at least one reason not to make resolutions: sometimes, God has different plans than we do.
New Year’s Eve/Day is often a bittersweet time for me. In years past, it’s been a reminder that I’m a year older but not a year closer to moving along in life. Nowadays I remind myself that this is a new year. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “The old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). It’s a time to start afresh and do things differently. Hence why people make resolutions…that they’ll hopefully keep after January.
For me, 2014 wasn’t a bad year, but it wasn’t a great year. It was a transitional year; a year when I took steps toward my goals and hopes. I took a class that got my foot in the door to get a teaching assistantship at a local university, which will enable me to start studying for a graduate degree. I’ve changed my money habits so I can pay off my student loans faster. I’ve been more intentional about meeting eligible bachelorettes in the hopes of getting married (New Year’s Eve is lonely when you don’t have someone to kiss at midnight). While I wish I was farther along, I’m 25,000 or so words deep into a sequel to my first novel, Pandora’s Box, and I’m editing two other projects I hope to self-publish. Speaking of writing, I joined an online freelance writers’ group that should help me step up on my nonfiction writing.
But like I said, these are only steps in the right directions. I’ve yet to accomplish any of my goals. That doesn’t mean my year was wasted. I may very well see these dreams come to fruition in 2015. 🙂
So, I leave you with my annual New Year’s theme song: “Comeback” by Redlight King. It’s especially great when you’ve had a bad year and want to make the next one better. May it inspire you like it did me.
Greg:
I have an annual tradition where I take a look back at the previous year and judge it collectively and deem whether it was a “good” or “bad” year. As I rewind the events of this past year, I find it difficult to make a definitive judgment on it.
On one hand, I’ve had some tremendous highs this year, from finally graduating with my Masters to finally travelling down to the Outer Banks, from meeting the Children of the Wells gang in June and to exploring beautiful places I never dreamed I’d see in Ireland and Scotland this past October. On the other hand, I’ve endured some pretty difficult situations these past twelve months, and the year’s ending on a sad note in my personal life.
If there’s anything I need to learn from 2014, it’s to not get hung up on the little things that like to haunt my thoughts like a garden pest that comes back year upon year. Truthfully, I question at times whether I’m cut out to be a writer, and this year had many moments that fed into those fears. Yet it’s the words of encouragement I’ve received from my wife, my professor and advisor at my Grad school, as well as my fellow writers here that urge me forward towards my lifelong dream of publication.
And for that, I’ll always be thankful.
The last few weeks of 2014 have been something of a whirlwind for my family. Amidst all the usual hubbub of the Christmas season, one of my sisters got engaged and two of our elderly relatives passed away – my grandfather and my great-great aunt. I can’t help but feel the passage of time a bit more acutely having experienced the loss of old family members and the promise of new ones within the span of several days. Life is a series of transitions, phasing from one season of life into another, sometimes slowly and gradually and other times drastically with large, prominent monuments and landmarks.
Yet in the middle of all the changes, one thing will always stay the same. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The wonder of this recent Christmas season, that God would put on flesh and dwell among us, is always a welcome reminder that “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). Those of us who put our faith in Him have a Guide who will be by our side through all the twists and turns of this mortal life.
Looking ahead to 2015, I am ever so grateful for that. The future can be scary, especially if you have dreams and aspirations but little guarantee which ones, if any, will work out like you hope. But there is a joy in the journey, especially when we put our trust in the Prince of Peace to walk with us.
Happy New Year, dear readers!
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