Facing another New Year: Each step forward is taken in faith
Whether what lies ahead is joy or tragedy, we know that when the fog lifts, we will face what is revealed with God as our strength.
IT'S JUST KEVIN
By Very Rev. Kevin George
A NEW YEAR BEGINS.
Indeed, it is that time of making and resolutions. January 1 is a day for great promises. We look at the year ahead and hopefully see all kinds of potential. We want things to be better for ourselves and for the world.
Naturally enough as the page of the calendar turns over to the fresh new year, it seems the right time to put things right, to start fresh, to begin again. For those so inclined, the first day of a new year is a time of hope and of great potential.
And yet, for others it is a time of uncertainty. That page changes from December 2025 and turns to January 2026 and that shift raises all kinds of questions and a new series of questions. What will lie ahead? Who will we say goodbye to in these next twelve months? What will become of me? Is this the last turn of the calendar for me?
Whether we tend to take the New Year in with a sense of hope and expectation or whether we see the shift in time as a time of dread and uncertainty, I pray that we can enter this New Year in faith. We do not know what lies ahead. We cannot know. The older I get, the more thankful I am for that unknowing.
In her book Tramp for the Lord Corrie Ten Boom writes that “Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.”
Having grown up in Newfoundland, I have seen my share of fog. For me, the turn of the New is a lot like a dense fog.
As a youngster, as ominous and uneasy as a foggy morning could feel, there was also something almost mystic about stepping off the back porch into the unknown, moving toward the sounds of water on beach rock, fog horns, and outboard motors pushing punts across the harbour. Each step forward, a step toward the potential of what the day ahead might bring. Each step was taken in faith. The fog will lift. When? Don’t know! What will be revealed when the fog rises? A mystery.
We cannot know what the year ahead will bring for us. As followers on the Way of Jesus, we step off the back porch of 2025 and step into the crisp, cool, and foggy air of 2026 with faith as our radar. Each step ahead is one made in trust. We do not walk alone. Whether what lies ahead is joy or tragedy, we know that when the fog lifts, we will face what is revealed with God as our strength. As the prophet Isaiah foretold,
“When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.”
(Isaiah 43:2)
With that said, I look forward to journeying into the unknown of the year ahead, with you fellow sojourners by my side.
I am not one for resolutions. Writer and critic Susan Sontag said, “Kindness, kindness, kindness. I want to make a New year's prayer, not a resolution. I'm praying for courage.”
As we head into 2026 together, I am making a New Year’s prayer - for you and for all of us, I pray for more kindness and for courage.
Very Rev. Dr. Kevin George is Rector of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and Dean of Huron.