The first month of the year, January, has a very appropriate name. It comes from one of the gods worshipped by the ancient Romans. His name was Janus, and he was believed to be the keeper of doors. Because people enter and leave through doors, Janus began to be pictured with two faces looking in opposite directions at once, so that he could see both what had gone and what was coming. Thus January is the doorkeeper of our year, and we use it to look both backward and forward.

This is a new year. Whatever losses we sustained or successes we achieved last year, they are part of our past. Carrying old sins and attitudes into a new year adds a burden and impedes our progress. We should not wallow in our failures or rest on our laurels. We are not finished. We begin this year with new opportunities for growth and service. Japanese custom for the New Year is to take a new broom and sweep everything in the house clean. This is what we should do with our lives.

One of my favorite chores during my elementary school years was staying after school to clean the blackboards. There was a peculiar pleasure in erasing the day's writing and washing the boards clean. But they didn't stay that way. The next day we and our teacher would fill the slates with problems to be solved, writing lessons to be copied, or diagrammed sentences.

What a wonderful picture! We're lined up in a parade of the People of God, and God has won a great victory. We're triumphant! Clouds of perfume fill the air around us, spreading the message of God's love to all who catch the odor.

Here is the way to march through a new year, following God. We can be one of the winners, not one of the captives. We can think of ourselves as on the way to salvation. We have been given a new year of life for the purpose of sharing God's gifts to us.

As we look back we see events and choices which have been turning points in our lives. It is often easier to see the pattern of God's hand as we review our personal history than it is to see God at work from day to day.

The best New Year's resolution anyone can make is to "continue to live your life" in Christ Jesus the Lord. Christianity is not about following a series of rules or teachings. It is daily communion with Jesus. What can this mean for us?

We experience life lived for other people. Everything Jesus did was for the benefit of someone else. Nothing was for the purpose of selfish gain or creating fame for himself.