Happy New Year and welcome to 2026!

If you’re like me, you may look at the new year as a chance to reinvent yourself as the person you’ve always wanted to be. You may have even made some lofty New Year’s Resolutions. Whenever I think of New Year’s Resolutions, I always think of this old joke:

Dear Lord, So far this year I’ve done well. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot more help. Amen.

There have been years where I decided not to make any resolutions, because I figured I was just setting myself up for failure. In 1988 there was a study that tracked 200 people over 2 years to see how well they stuck to their resolutions, and only 19% of the people were successful. I didn’t have faith in my own ability to defy those odds, so instead I decided not to try.

But I wasn’t thinking about the benefits we can gather from failed resolutions. Failing at something can be a humbling thing, and it can remind us that we shouldn’t depend only on ourselves. We are all part of multiple communities that can help hold us up when we fall. Co-workers can help fix mistakes we’ve made at work. Family can pitch in when the tasks around the house get overwhelming. Friends can lift our spirits when we’re feeling depressed. And beyond all that, we always have the Grace of God, welcoming us back into His loving arms again and again when we fall short of loving him and each other fully.

With God, we always get the chance to try again. No matter how many times we slip on our resolutions, Grace reminds us that mistakes are not failures, and more importantly, WE are not failures because of our mistakes. We are part of God’s creation, created in his image, and that is more powerful than any New Year’s Resolution.

I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday.

Jeff Rockey