New year, new me...

There is a common myth doing the rounds about every cell in our bodies being replaced every 7 years. This is untrue, of course. Or at least, it's not completely true. The cells on the inner lens of your eye, for instance, have been with you since you were a fetus, regardless of how old you are. Your tooth enamel is never replaced, and neither are the neurons in your cerebral cortex (the wrinkly bit on the outside of your brain in charge of processing various sensory information). Colon cells refresh every four days or so, and you get an entirely new skin every 2 - 3 weeks. It also takes an average of 10 years for you to grow a completely new skeleton. So when people say: "New year, new me..." I can't help but think to myself: "Yes, but not quite." At least not in a physiological sense.

However, change is inevitable. We change, whether we want to or not. Our circumstances change, whether we want them to or not. Life happens. People make choices that influence us in some unforeseen way, for better or for worse. We have the power to change some things in life, but most things in life we do not hold any power over. This may seem like a defeatist outlook on life, but read that line again and stop at the comma. We do have power. We have the power of choice. We have the power to change. We have the power to love. But, as uncle Ben from Spiderman famously said: "With great power comes great responsibility."

I've been in various situations in my life where I asked God to guide me; where I was actively, almost frantically seeking "His Will" for a specific situation. And then, when I heard nothing, I did nothing, losing out on countless opportunities in the process. All because I chose not to choose. We have been given the freedom of choice by a God who loves us very, very much, and He wants us to use this power for the good of those around us and for His glory. He didn't make robots when he created the world. We made robots. And now we want to make the robots think for themselves. Ironic, really.

Anyway.

I don't know if you have any New Year's Resolutions or End-Of-Year Goals or a 2019 To-Do List. I don't know if you've worked really hard at last year's list, or whether you're just making up things for 2019 to appease your more structured, enquisitive friends and relatives. Whatever you're making of this new orbit around the sun, be sure of this: You can choose to be better everyday. You can choose to love everyday. You can choose to live everyday. Not just in January, or on Sundays. Every day. You have the power to choose.

There's a story about a boat caught in a storm one cold and dark night. It didn't make a lot of headway in the storm as it tried to get back to the harbour. A nervous passenger came up to the captain to ask: "Do you think we'll make it in to port okay?" The captain replied: "Well, this is an old, leaky boat, so we may go down; the boiler is also not in a good state, so we may blow up. But, whatever happens, we are going on."

May you choose to go on in 2019. May you choose to believe in something better around the corner in 2019. May you be filled with hope of a better future for all people. May you root this hope in Jesus Christ, who overcame even death to give us the freedom to choose. And may your body be a living reminder that everything changes, except tooth enamel. And that change is good.