Finish Strong, Start Over
It’s New Year’s Eve. Are you more excited about celebrating the end of the year or welcoming the new one? Can we do both?
As a birder, one way I measure a year is by counting all the different species I see. Thankfully, electronic records and a smartphone make that easy. Although 2025 has not been my biggest year ever, it was a particularly good year for my Washington County list. At the beginning of the year, I decided to focus on birds I had never seen locally, and that goal has shaped the whole year for me.
Instead of chasing a rare bird seen in Ft. Smith or taking a special trip down to the Gulf Coast, I spent time searching for the birds that can be seen right here. As a result, I added twenty-eight new species to my lifetime county list. Even though only a handful of those were birds I had never seen somewhere else, finding them in my home county felt like an accomplishment. As the year comes to a close, I feel a sense of gratitude and satisfaction at what I have been able to achieve, even if the achievement only matters to me.
And the best part is that it all starts over again tomorrow. At midnight tonight, my 2025 list will be complete, and a brand new 2026 list will begin. What will my first bird of the year be? What goals will I set for myself this year? How many birds will I see? Will there be any lifers? How many will I add to my county list next year?
Non-birders keep annual lists and lifetime lists, too. In some ways, tomorrow morning brings a fresh start. We close the book on 2025 and welcome a new year, but, in many ways, what lies ahead of us builds upon what has passed. Although today is the last day to complete a financial transaction and have it count for the current tax year, how we spend our money in the next few hours could make a big difference in how we start 2026. We might plan to start a diet or a new exercise routine tomorrow morning, but how we take care of our bodies today affects our ability to wake up early and go for a run.
No matter how much we want to turn the page on the previous year, none of us is starting from scratch, yet all of us have the opportunity to start anew. Yes, the coming year could be very different. We could make radical changes that, after twelve months, have made a real, positive impact on our lives. Starting the year with that frame of mind is an important part of achieving those goals, but there is more at play than a mindset. If your goal in 2026 is to run a marathon, do not be discouraged if you can only jog a mile tomorrow morning. To start over, you must start where you are. There are many ways to get to the finish line, but you cannot begin anywhere except the start.
In the Book of Lamentations, we are reminded that God’s mercies are new every morning. No matter how difficult today has been, the author tells us, tomorrow is a new day. Today still matters, and our experience of hardship will not vanish like the morning fog, but God’s faithfulness and love mean that things can and will change.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us not to worry about what tomorrow will bring but to live with gratitude in the present moment and with confidence in what God will provide. It might sound like Jesus is urging us not to set any New Year’s resolutions, but I think his focus is less on ignoring the future than on accepting the present. We believe in a God who meets us where we are—not where we wish we were—and that gives us real hope for tomorrow.
Our lives are shaped through a collection of momentary decisions that have a cumulative impact. You cannot make 2026 a good year all at once, no matter how wonderful and fresh your start is. But the good news is that, unless you make some truly terrible and consequential decisions on New Year’s Day, you cannot make 2026 a bad year all at once either. What you can do is decide that tomorrow is as good a time to start over as any other day and then take one day at time.
Nonetheless, today matters, too. How will you finish the year? I am headed out to look for a few more birds. Even though my list starts over tomorrow, today still counts.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner
