It’s that time of year. As we change calendars, planners, file taxes and make plans we experience to one degree or another the rhythm of ending and beginning. We are saying goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024. Some people use this rhythm as a time for reflection. Looking back on our past year can bring both celebration and discouragement. It can also be a time for setting goals, making resolutions and working on various areas of our lives. As humans, we have the capacity to do that because we are self-aware. I’m fairly certain that the squirrels in my back yard are not sitting in their nests this week making New Year’s Resolutions. Our ability to assess and review implies that there is a standard or a model that we are comparing ourselves to. Some of those standards are legitimate and some are not. If your only goal for 2024 is to make more money or win more pickle ball games, you might be settling a bit short of what God intends. On the other hand, if you want to spend more time contemplating the infinite love of God so that it becomes a more natural part of your disposition, you’re probably onto something eternal. People make all sorts of resolutions this time of the year. Many of them will be ignored by February. This coming Sunday we’re going to look at a passage in 1 Peter to help with your year-end review and planning for 2024. God does have a desire for us and it would be good to line up with that desire more and more “as we see the Day approaching.”