As 2026 parties its way into our new year, we hope our excruciating and inexplicable 2025 will quickly fade into the mist of time and whatever comes next won't be so inexplainable. Boy, big words seem to add a tad of Harry Potter magic. Anyway, because I am a realistic guy — from my point of view — I will not pen my list of changes to myself and my life. Well, most of the folks I know make them but call them resolutions: life, health, finances and new habits.

I did some research and found that most folks list the same stuff every year, and of course, break most of them right after the ball drops and the booze runs out. So, I asked my research source to give me some new stuff. Here goes, so get out your yellow pad and Sharpie.

Become a millionaire tomorrow. Lose my 2025 weight gain. Climb Mt. Everest. Stop lying. Learn French. Go to France. Remember names. Read every banned book. Pay off my credit cards. Try to not get fired. Stop procrastinating, eventually. Visit a nude beach. Change my password. Learn to play my banjo. Stop checking my phone. Stop picking my nose in public. Go to the gym. Run a marathon.

Not once did anyone — at least from my source — say to be a better person, go to church, give money to charities, volunteer at a food bank, forgive my neighbor or read the Bible. Now, to be fair, the many people who are churchgoers won't write this on their lists because they don't brag about what they believe, how they live and how they worship. And — this is a big one — who am I to sit on the front pew and point out the sinners from my point of view? I digress.

There will be many attendees having a great time New Year's Eve and then will go home with smiles on their faces as they flop on the couch or hit the bed. Tomorrow will be another new day; the alarm clock may ring way too early and the chores won't wait for the maid. Neither will the butler.

There are many studies that certainly agree that our country, our world, is filled with millions of people who believe they were born unlucky, not talented, unloved and simply a statistic. If there is a God, their lives are fixed by a Supreme Being who has a strange sense of humor, has no compassion for the poor and helpless, "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go." Hamlet.

And so many sinners who believe they were born in sin, will die in sin, and if there is a purgatory, will be there for a very long, long, time.

Don't you believe it!

There is a God and He does not, will not, ever turn His back on us. And so, we ask, "What must I do to earn the right to be saved?"

The new day, the new year, the new us has a gift. Turn to Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!"

We can't get His love. No matter how many resolutions, decent acts, perfect lives, prayers and good deeds can earn our right to be forgiven. The Good News brings us a new life, a new day and a very New Year!

We can do something. We have a choice to make. Choose our Lord Jesus Christ. What a new year we're going to have! Happy New Year!

Thanks, God!