A New Year, A New Self

We make promises. We plan, envision, re-calibrate, and define goals. We look ahead and behind. We hope, determine, and anticipate.

We look forward to a white page, a whole year ahead, without smudges. Not a single broken resolve. Yet.

Years ago, my husband, myself, and our three little girls stood together with about fifty others, clad in our warmest coats, scarves and mittens. Figures fit for a Rockwell painting, we grouped in the light of a massive bonfire, watching wild sparks fly like fireflies against the cold black night. Cloudy frosted breath-puffs wreathed the air around us. Light and shadow danced across the faces gazing mesmerized by the burning of the old year.

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote that we are like vapor, puffs of breath. (James 4:14) And so as we waited for the old to pass and the new to arrive, our chilly inhale and exhale accentuated his words into the glow of the night.    

It was our first year to watch the local custom of burning the old year and bringing in a new in our little Italian town. After Christmas, random pieces of old furniture curiously appeared in an empty town lot. The wood pile grew higher day by day. Heaped together were the back piece of a spindled chair, a broken old picture frame, the handle of a spade, and the occasional beyond-repair dresser.

Until bit by bit, the mountain rose tall. As I walked past on my daily trek to the tiny village grocery store, I watched it grow higher and broader. It topped the heads of my little girls, and soon reached above mine. I watched it lean wobbly to one side and then right itself again with a new discarded addition.

On New Year’s Eve, the effigy of an old straw stuffed man propped like a star at the top.

As the hour approached midnight, a crowd grew around the wooden pyre. The first torched lighting happened with much excitement. It took to the wood with passion and vigor. Its flames licked high into the dark. Unlike any bonfire I’d ever witnessed before, this one held a symbolism which clutched at my heart.

Something deep inside me stirred and also ignited. As I watched the entranced faces through flickering light, the words of the Apostle Paul whispered in my soul.

“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and…be renewed in the spirit of your minds…put on the new self…” (Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV)

I wondered what the once loved old chair represented to its owner, or that drawer with the broken bottom and intricately carved front. I glanced around. Faces happy, excited and somber gazed at the sight. And as the smoke curled into the night sky, the cheeks of others glistened with tears of loss and grief.

The scene so precisely fitted not just the bitterness, sorrows and disappointments left behind, but also of humankind’s spiritual need. Those burning discarded scraps, once useful and even beautiful, reminded me of the condition of our hearts.

The incineration of worthless rubbish preached a message of ownership, the old self destroyed by the power of a new person in Christ. It spoke of freedom through Jesus and of inner transformation.

The flames licking the sky evoked such a deeply personal experience within my soul. It opened a burning desire in me for others to experience newness of heart, freed from the chains of the past, bought by the blood of Christ.

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:6 ESV)

And I remember wondering if anyone else could see what seemed so clearly represented.

Or, was the smoke spiraling into the night sky no more than a hopeless demonstration of life’s good intentions? Was it renewal of human resolve, the pulling upward of bootstraps, while clinging to that same unredeemed inner-person?

New Years resolutions and promises often reveal how desperately we grasp onto the lie that true change belongs to self, determination, and will.

Christ alone has the power to alter the heart and make it new. Christ alone has the power to make a New Year new.New Years resolutions and promises often reveal how desperately we grasp onto the lie that true change belongs to self, determination, and will. Share on X

Paul, a man once filled with hate and murder said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)

I feel the need for Jesus in life’s predictable cycle of regularity, as well as in its darkest surprises. Hardships, sadness, grief, and repeated failures all push me, woo me to renew life, by putting the old to death.

The next morning when I walked past the still smoldering black hill of remaining ash, hope sang in my heart. For each new year brings the continuing reality of ongoing transformation through Christ.

“Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24), and again in Colossians 3:10, “Put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” (NKJV)

The new man is created in the likeness of God and in the image of our Creator.Each new year brings the continuing reality of ongoing transformation through Christ. Share on X

I truly hope that the year, 2025 will reflect the likeness and image of Him in our souls and beings. May our New Year bear evidence, to the whole world, of the One who makes all things new.

 

*Feature Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash

8 Replies

  1. Barbara Latta Reply

    What an amazing tradition to watch reminders of the past go up in flames. This can help us let go of it and focus on a new beginning. Thanks for sharing this experience, Sylvia.

    • Sylvia Schroeder Reply

      Thank you Barbara for reading it! It definitely impressed me. My husband grew up in Ecuador, and he experienced a similar custom there as well. Quite an illustration!

  2. Gina Castell Reply

    Wonderful, encouraging reminder of who we are and what our goal should truly be. ❤️ G

  3. Ron Gallagher Reply

    What a great story to start the new year, Sylvia. I love the tradition you wrote about and another display of your unique gift to express it in a way that lit up the images like the new year’s fire lit up the night. Thank you for the inspiring bright spot in this new year.

    • Sylvia Schroeder Reply

      Ron, I’m absolutely honored by your kind words! Thank you so much. Happy New Year!

  4. Deb Reply

    Thank you so much for these thoughts, so beautifully tied in to scripture! I think often of 1 Corin chapter 3… the fire that will sort out and destroy what has not been done in Christ’s name, leaving only the valuable. How merciful.

    • Sylvia Schroeder Reply

      I am so grateful for a merciful Father who makes all things new! Thank you Deb!

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