2022: a year of thriving not just surviving

New Year is traditionally a time of reflecting back and planning forwards; a Janus moment when we face both ways. And this year as we reflect back over 2021, we can’t get away from the fact that it has been a tough year for all of us. Covid and its associated health, economic and social pressures have impacted all of our lives to differing degrees.

As I look back over my own year, I thank God that I have survived, but it has certainly been challenging. I have - thank the Lord - not been visited by Covid, but I do seem to have spent a lot of time in hospital fighting for my life, and being sliced, diced and pierced with an unfeasible number of needles (my nemesis).

But there have also been times of real joy with family and friends. My cancer treatment combined with lung problems have meant that these have been few and far between (the world has not opened up for the clinically extremely vulnerable as it has for others), but their scarcity has only rendered them even more precious.

The year gone past has also been undeniably a time of incredible personal spiritual growth. As my clinically vulnerability has sadly prevented me from being with my church family, I have discovered in the silence and the sickness, a different and deep relation with my God.

One of the traditional New Year’s scriptures from Isaiah 43 seems to suggest a renunciation of the year gone by:

Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert. (v18-19)

However, I don’t think God wants us to let go of the moments of joy – we should treasure times of closeness – but rather we should honour and then let go of memories of pain, loneliness and even loss, and then recognise that God always ‘doing a new thing’, leading on us on new paths through the wilderness and bringing life in all its fullness.

So my prayer is that in the year to come will we not only survive but also thrive, making the very most of the times that we have with others and with God.

Wishing you a very happy New Year that is filled with love and laughter, health and happiness.

Kate Nicholas is a preacher, Christian author, broadcaster and consultant. Her best-selling memoir Sea Changed (shortlisted as Christian Biography of the Year 2017) is an account of her unconventional journey of faith and previous healing from advanced cancer.

Her latest book, Soul’s Scribe: Connecting Your Story With God’s Narrative , (launched in 2021) draws on scripture, philosophy, psychology and over 20 years’ of reflection as a Christian communicator to take you on a journey through the various chapters of your soul story, providing you with the tools to share that story in a way that will inspire and encourage others.

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