The transition into a new year is often filled with anticipation. We reflect on the year we’ve just completed. We make resolutions and think about our goals or word of focus for the coming year.
Two of the definitions for anticipation provided by Merriam-Webster are “the act of looking forward” and “a visualization of a future event or state.” These certainly apply to the coming of a new year, but we also spend a lot of our lives in anticipation.
As kids, most of us continually anticipated the next stage. We couldn’t wait until we got to high school, then we wanted the freedom of college, then we anticipated the financial independence of our first job and paycheck (then we got the paycheck and realized how much went to taxes and not our bank account…). We wanted to grow up and be independent.
Even as adults, we live in anticipation. Finding a husband. Having kids (waiting the loooong 40 weeks of pregnancy). The vacation we’ve been dreaming about. Hearing the doctor finally say “in remission.” Getting a new job or moving to a new city. We want to continue to have deep, meaningful connections and live a fulfilling life.
Unfortunately, however, our anticipations don’t always come to fruition. We don’t get the job. The child is never conceived. College didn’t happen because life took you in a different direction.
All of these things are manageable though, because the Christian faith also has us living in this area of anticipation. Part of the biblical definition of faith is “confidence in what we hope for” (Hebrews 11:1). This is the same “looking forward” from Merriam-Webster, but with an assurance that God is directing our paths. Jesus also teaches us anticipation in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” We live in the tension that the Kingdom of God is here among us and in us through the Holy Spirit, but anticipate that the complete, perfect Kingdom is still to come. I’m sure this anticipation of Heaven is growing in each of us as we look around our world and see all of the war, suffering, and bitterness. This desire for a perfect Heaven is from God who has “set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11b).
The strain of anticipation is often great because we’re longing for good things, happy things, holy things. The strain is also exacerbated by our 2023-going-on-2024 world that moves faster and faster each day. Groceries can be delivered in 2 hours. Prime can have anything at your door in a couple of days. Most of us have smart phones that can access all the known information in the world with just a few taps.
Many of us have lost the art of waiting, sitting in the anticipation. There are many examples in the Bible of people who received a calling or promise from God but did not see it fulfilled for a long time. Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17), Hannah (1 Samuel 1), and Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1) all waited for children. David was anointed to eventually become king as a boy (1 Samuel 16) but spent the next decade plus facing all sorts of trials and learning opportunities before finally becoming king (2 Samuel 2 and 5). How many of us have waited much longer than we wanted for something but when we finally got it, realized that God was doing a lot of work in the waiting and/or He gave us something much better than we originally thought we wanted?
As you move into 2024, consider what you’re anticipating for this upcoming year. Ask God to direct you to what He has in store for you. And don’t forget to settle into the waiting; God is using that too.