What are you wishing for this year?

Happy New Year - the traditional greeting that we send and receive on 1 Jan. But do you really want a happy New Year? When I started thinking about this post a few days ago my working title was something along the lines of 'why I won't be wishing you a happy New Year' - but that didn't seem very friendly.

I guess for many the answer to the question, 'do you want a happy New Year?' will be ‘yes’. But as a Christian my answer should depend on how I understand ‘happy’. Generally speaking, we’d understand happiness as something to do with the way that we feel which is based on our circumstances. 

So when we wish each other a happy New Year we’re hoping that the other person has a year in which nothing bad happens. We hope they don’t have a year marked with worry or anxiety or sickness or unhappiness or grief or tragedy. They get promotion rather than redundancy. The things they try succeed rather than fail. And surely that is what any normal person would want for their friends, family and neighbours.

But what is your goal for the new year ahead? Is your goal to be happy - or do you have something else in mind?

For the writers of the New Testament, their desire and focus was always on the big, eternal picture. Their prayers rarely ask for circumstances that will generate feelings of 'happiness'. Rather they speak about circumstances in which they were able to rejoice because, in faith, they saw God working out a much bigger purpose with a much bigger reward than any temporary feelings of happiness. 

So, for example, James urges us to rejoice in the face of trials because through these trials God is moulding us into the people that he wants us to be. 

In the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches his disciples that God’s values are usually very different to the way that we often think. When it comes to God’s blessings they are often experienced by those who are going through (it would seem) unhappy times.

Paul's prayer for the Philippians was focused on their eternal future, and God's glory, rather than their immediate comfort. And although Paul was writing from prison, facing potential execution, his prayer and desire for himself is fully focused on God's glory and the spreading of Jesus' reputation - and because of this he is able to rejoice - whether it means death or life.

So, as we look ahead to another year, do we wish for happiness in the coming 12 months? Or do we thank God that whatever lies ahead he has promised to be with us? Do we ask him for the faith to trust that through whatever the new year brings we will believe that he is making us into people who are fit for his kingdom and through whom Jesus will be glorified?