I don’t know about you, but my 2020 didn’t go quite as planned! Almost everything was uprooted and altered; holidays, birthdays, work rhythms, Christmas, and New Years Eve.
But for me, and maybe you, New Years Day held the same promise it does every year, the promise of hope and change. There is nothing magical nor physically special about the First of January. But culturally, to many of us, it has come to symbolise this momentous invitation to embrace hope and change and consider on an individual level what this looks like.
It is like being handed an open, empty bag and knowing you have the choice, right now, to fill it with whatever you wish to take forward with you.
But be careful what you put in your bag, we are creatures of habit. Although in theory we can swap out what we carry at anytime, we get comfortable with the baggage we hold, good and bad. We create grooves through our choices and those grooves get deeper each week and harder to step out of.
So let’s pack wisely, let’s go to God in prayer;
Dear Lord as 2021 spills out before us, a fresh slate, we pray that you give us the wisdom and insight to sit quietly with ourselves and prepare to discard that which no longer serves us. Habits thoughts, relationships, some of them are not healthy and so as this year starts we lovingly step away from them. Guide and support us Lord, as we break reigns that we have clung to that have ultimately become chains that hold us back from our true selves.
Heavenly Parent, You gave us the gift of free will and today we embrace that free will, the availability to make choices and carve our our own 2021. It is all too easy to blame others, blame politics, blame covid, blame You; but ultimately we have the final say in how we react in each moment. We pray now that you fill us with the love and compassion that may inform each of our reactions and choices. May 2021 be a practice in reacting and choosing with kindness.
Jesus you are the architect of hope. We pray now that you inspire us daily to be hopeful and to be a lighthouse of hope for others. Despair and despondency have no place on our journey we now plan for 2021. With you as our tour guide the map is one of excitement and we relish the thought of the twists and turns we will explore on our journey this year, each time learning something new.
Holy Spirit, make us bold, make us brave! 2021 is another chance for us all. We pray now that this is the year we dig deep and explore our passions, hobbies, those flourishes that make each of us unique. For that one amongst us who yearns to dance, set fire in their feet; for that one who longs to sing, give them a voice of confidence. For each of us as we start to run and sew and swim and write and sculpt and cook and play and keep bees…. this year, Holy Spirit, more than ever, give us the courage to keep going.
Heavenly Mother, may we all begin a new habit of daily prayer. It is through regular connection with you, be it worship, prayer song or an act of kindness, it is through these things that 2021 can be our best year yet.
Amen!
The Unexpected Prayer 