You Can Honor The Past Without Living In It

Happy New Year (2026)!

When I was growing up, I had a shirt that I wore all the time. It was a USA Basketball t-shirt that simply said, “Respect the past. Represent the future.”

As a kid who grew up in the 1990s, I vividly remember watching many of the players who made up the original Dream Team, the first group of professional basketball players to represent the United States in Olympic competition. Those players were legends. They changed the game and left an undeniable mark on basketball history.

But by the time I was wearing that shirt, the Olympic team had moved on to a different group of players. Younger players. New players.

The message of the shirt was subtle but important. It was not about rallying around a specific roster of stars, but about supporting the team itself. In other words, it did not ultimately matter whose name was on the back of the jersey. What mattered was the USA across the front.

Nothing about what the Dream Team accomplished was diminished simply because a new generation put on the uniform. Their legacy is secure. They have been honored in multiple halls of fame, including the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the Olympics, and FIBA.

But they were never meant to play forever.

Since then, the United States has won multiple Olympic gold medals with dozens of incredible players. That shirt captured something true. We can absolutely celebrate where we have been while still looking forward to where we are going.

As one year closes and another opens, there is a quiet moment most of us experience somewhere between reflection and anticipation. We ask ourselves, What just happened? and What comes next?

New Year’s invites us to look back honestly and forward faithfully.

Isaiah 42 was written to people standing in that same tension. God’s people had endured exile, loss, and disorientation. Much of what once felt stable had been taken from them. And into that space, God spoke, not with denial of their pain, but with clarity about who He is and where He was leading them.

“Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who gives breath to the people on it.”

Before God said anything about the future, He reminded them of Himself. The Creator. The Sustainer. The One who gives breath.

That matters as we close a year like 2025. It was not simple. There was loss, transition, and unanswered questions. Yet, God kept giving breath. We kept worshiping. We kept showing up. Faithfulness did not always look flashy, but it was real.

Hope is never rooted in circumstances. It is rooted in the One who holds us when circumstances shift.

Isaiah then introduces the Servant, God’s chosen agent of justice, restoration, and light. What stands out is how relational the calling is: “I will take you by the hand and keep you.” God does not lead from a distance. He guides by nearness.

That has been true for many of us this year. There were seasons when clarity came slowly.

Not everything was defined. But God held us, and we stayed together. Sometimes faith looks like trusting the hand you are holding even when you cannot yet see the whole path.

Then comes this promise: “The former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.”

God does not deny the past. He redeems it. The year behind us, with all its joys and wounds, is not wasted. It is woven into a larger story God is still telling.

So as we step into a new year, I find myself returning to a few simple postures.

Gratitude before critique. Naming where God has been faithful before focusing on what feels fragile.

Prayer over panic. Choosing trust when uncertainty tries to take the lead.

Connection over withdrawal. Staying present with God and with one another, even when answers take time.

Love that moves outward. Letting what God has poured into us overflow into generosity, service, patience, and grace.

And finally, alignment. Not chasing what was, but walking toward what God is building. Releasing nostalgia without losing gratitude. Choosing shared purpose over isolated effort.

So maybe this is the prayer to carry into the new year:

“Lord, where are You leading, and how can I walk there faithfully with others?”

A year of faithfulness has brought us here. A future of hope is calling us forward.

May we walk into it held by God, shaped by love, and aligned with His purposes together.

Anyway, I was just thinking...