Aliel Cunningham

Welcome to 2025!

Everywhere you go, there are videos, social media posts, TV ads, friends, co-workers, relatives, cashiers and even strangers on the street wishing you a happy start to your new year. Most of us begin the year with fresh hope that this year we will finally break out of old habits and into new ways of being that are healthier, more productive, and a catalyst for change in problem areas of your life. The first few days of the year, it seems like these goals are very reachable – the runner breezes through their first run around the neighborhood, the writer sits down and hammers out their first 1000 word essay, and the dieter makes it through their first whole day on salad alone.

The difficulty is not getting out to accomplish our resolution on the first day of the year, as is well known to anyone who has ever tried to keep a New Year’s resolution. The challenge is to keep doing it and not growing weary of getting out into the cold to run, getting up early to write, and staying out of the sweets when temptation calls. Each of these resolutions requires fighting the inertia of old habits that pushes us back into passivity – It is simply easier and more comfortable not to go out for the run, not to sit down and focus on writing, not to stay consistent with your diet.

In fact, there is a day now that is even observed on the calendar for those who start strong and then quickly grow weary and quit. It is called “Quitter’s Day” and this year it falls on January 10th. This is the day statistically when most people will abandon whatever goal they set for their New Year’s resolution. If you make it past “Quitter’s Day” you are well on your way to cultivating a new habit in your life’s rhythm. Even if our new resolution makes it past Quitter’s Day, there will still be days you will want to give up. This is because everyone, young and old alike, grows weary.

Not only do we get weary physically, but we also get soul weary. Each of us have areas of our lives in which we have been praying and looking for change for months, years, even decades… and no change seems to have come. We begin to wonder if God has abandoned this part of our story and has left us to our own devices. Or perhaps we are weary because we have forgotten that God is a part of our story at all.

The truth is that God remains very present in our story whether we recognize it or not. Unlike us, He does not grow weary. Psalm 121 says that He never slumbers nor sleeps and where we are tempted to give up, He continues to press on in His work undaunted. Weariness is something that comes from a lack of energy, a depletion of life. Since God, the Father, is the very source of all energy and creative life, He is strong enough to continue sustaining the universe day after day and pursuing our hearts generation after generation without reaching a point of exhaustion of His power or giving up on His original goal of sharing intimate fellowship with His creation.

GK Chesterton points out that our weariness stems from being born into sin and growing old, but God has never sinned and so he has the eternal appetite and energy of children to repeat even mundane things again and again in delight and wonder. “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.”

Jesus invited those who felt weary to come and be yoked together with Him for where He is there is also true rest and restoration. Wherever we are feeling weary in this new year, may we look for where God is at work in the midst of our story. May we draw near and find soul rest in the presence of the One who is never too tired to embrace us in His renewing love and speak His Word of life over us giving our hearts wings to soar.

As we wait in His presence, He renews our strength in the very moment when we are tempted to quit before we reach our destination. Only by abiding in Him who never tires in pursuit of His aims, can we live out the exhortation of Galatians 6:9, that reminds us, “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Let us receive His eternal, childlike strength to keep going after the people and dream He has put in our hearts – especially when we feel like giving up.

May we wait upon our miracle-working God who has never tired of the joyful dance of grace-giving love and look up in expectation for Him to “do it again”! The same God who created the world ex nihilo (something out of nothing), “do it again”! The same God who called water from a rock and bread from heaven, “do it again”! The same God who made a road in the wilderness and gave life to barren wombs, “do it again”! The same God who exchanged ashes for beauty, weeping for dancing, death for life – “do it again”!

Do we dare to be as children in the streets of Jerusalem looking for you to come and “do it again” today when we feel exhausted and overwhelmed? At the start of this New Year, I need you. You are the lifter of my head, the strength of my heart, and the healer of my weary soul. Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus.

---

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,

  ~Isaiah 40:29-31