A New Year note from a New Year Grinch 

2023 is just around the corner.  As a new year dawns, many of us want a new start, a fresh start but the writer of Ecclesiastes tell us that isn’t possible and I don’t think its as bad thing.

There's nothing new on this earth. Year after year it's the same old thing. Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"? Don't get excited—it's the same old story. Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody'll remember them either. Don't count on being remembered.
Eccl 1:9 - 11 

The writer (probably not King Solomon) of the book of Ecclesiastes gives us this very depressing news. Just read the whole passage and by the end of it you feel like there is no point in living. I think you have to read the whole book to fully understand where his is going but that’s for another time

He does drive home the point; that there is nothing new. 

The Hebrew word he uses for nothing is literally - does not exist. 
Nothing new exists. It’s not like there is someone or something hiding in a cave or room somewhere waiting to unleash a brand spanking new thought, emotion, reaction, or experience. Nothing new exists. Nothing.

The word he uses for new is even more interesting. Literally it means fresh. The image of fresh fruit or veg comes to mind. Brand new, never been eaten or touched.

So, nothing fresh exists. Then he says “on this earth.” Literally it read, "under the path of the sun."
Do you see?  That’s much bigger than just the earth. 

Nothing fresh exists under the path of the sun.
Wherever the Sun reaches you will find nothing fresh. Nowhere does anything fresh exist. 

There is no feeling, experience, emotion, obstacle, circumstance, thought, reaction or overreaction, that you or I can go through that is new, unique or fresh to you alone.
Yes, it might be something that you are feeling or experiencing for the first time but its not unique to you. It’s not fresh. Perhaps the sum total of your collective circumstances would get close to being unique but its unlikely. The only uniqueness is found in you. 

Is this bad that a bad thing?  Is it a depressing or bad that there is nothing new?

Let's answer that with a well known story about perspective;

There where twin boys of five or six. Worried that the boys had developed extreme personalities — one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist — their parents took them to a psychiatrist.
First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. ”What’s the matter?” the psychiatrist asked, baffled. “Don’t you want to play with any of the toys?” “Yes,” the little boy bawled, “but if I did I’d only break them.” 

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his out look, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. “What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. “With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!” 

I guess from one perspective it is depressing. If you focus on the feelings, the emotions, the circumstances etc.
If nothing fresh exists then, yes perhaps it is depressing.

The reality though is that you and I are the unique bit. We are the ones that make the things we experience and go though unique. 
Maybe that’s what God has had in mind all along?

So, I don’t think it's  a bad thing. In fact I think the fact that nothing fresh exists of our lives is actually a very good thing and its the way God intended it. 

I think that because if nothing fresh exists, then it means;

I am not alone 

How many times have you go though an experience and have felt totally alone. Usually we feel this when that experience is a bad one. There is no one in all of the world that understands what this is like. Right? 

Nothing could be further from the truth! If there is indeed no emotion, feeling, experience, circumstance, reaction etc. new or fresh in the world, that means that there are others who have been there and done that. Whatever it is. However bad it seems. You are not alone. 

Help is at hand 

If I am not alone. If there are others then surely help is at hand. I think the thing we so often get wrong is by simply not looking for the help. Refusing to believe or accept that maybe there is someone who knows and understands what this feels like. Sometimes we just have to look. There is more though. 

“Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.” Hebrews 4:14 - 16

So not only are there others but the Bible tells us that Jesus has been through it and knows. That he is in touch with our reality. Its not like he created us and then just lets us get on with it. He knows and understands. The message from scripture is clear, “take the mercy, accept the help.” 

There are answers 

If there is nothing new and others and God himself knows and understands, then there must be answers. 
If we are willing to “take the mercy, accept the help,” we can find the answers. We may not find them instantly or easily but they are there. 

We know this simply because others have been there. 
We can learn their lessons. Learn from their successes and failures but mostly if Jesus is really in touch with our reality then we have to believe that the answers are ultimately available in him. 

So, rather than making New Year Resolutions that you might or probably won’t keep, why not grab onto this truth for 2023 and let it free you!

“If nothing fresh exists, then I am not alone. 
Take the mercy accept the help. 
I am not alone, so help is at hand and there are answers.”

- Phil Hibbert