Will 2022 be better than 2021?

If 2022 is to be better than 2021, I must own the responsibility. I’m not arrogant enough to think that I have the solutions to all the mess that is going on around the world. And I don’t pretend to have the influence to impact big change around me. 

But I am responsible for a better new year, nonetheless.

Let me tell you what I DON’T plan to do:

I don’t plan to spend all my time pointing out the failures of others.

I won’t try to fix other people.

I won’t target others as a way to make the future brighter. That would be ludicrous.

I hope not to sit and complain, fret and be hopeless. 

This is how I hope to make 2022 better than 2021:

I’m asking myself (more importantly, I’m asking my wife and a few trusted friends) what I need to change personally in 2022. How can I improve? What should I stop doing? What new habit or discipline will make me more effective? How can I be a better man, husband, father, grandfather, friend and leader? I am asking the Lord to help me in my weaknesses, to teach me a better way to live, to increase my wisdom and to change me by the power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. If I change, grow and improve, 2022 will be better than 2021. 

This may sound a little silly to you. How can one person make a year better? My approach is focused on my responsibility to do what I can do. The major issues of society are beyond the scope of my abilities; although I care deeply, there is little impact I can make on major problems. But I can change me – and I am the only one who can change me.  

If 2022 is to be better than 2021, I must own the responsibility.