Beginnings

As the clock strikes midnight on December 31, many people may share a kiss with their significant other, cheer, and use noisemakers to celebrate a new year. And sure, a kiss at midnight and making noise are some of the common new year traditions that are said to bring you luck, they certainly not the only ones.

Here are some of the most unique, and maybe even lesser known, New Year’s superstitions from various countries around the world that are thought to help bring good luck and ward off the bad for the new year.

Walk Around with an Empty Suitcase - In Spain and Latin American the custom is supposed to welcome new experiences and a year filled with traveling.

Throw Furniture from a Window - In some European cultures, you can find people throwing couches, fridges and more from their window when the clock strikes midnight. This symbolizes doing away with the old and welcoming in the new.

Leave Windows and Doors Open - Leaving your doors and windows open on New Year's Eve is said to let out the old year.

Break Dishes - In Denmark it is considered good luck and a sign of friendship to break dishes and plates on the homes of those closest to you.

Clean the House - Many people around the world believe in starting New Year's Day with a clean house in order to avoid carrying the old or dirt of last year into the new year.

Burn Photos - An Ecuadorian superstition calls for burning photos of old memories before midnight in order to make way for the new things to come.

Possible Preaching Angle:
While we don’t participate in worldly superstitions, these traditions can be an interesting way to remind believers that the Bible promises them a fresh start every morning with God (“new every morning” Lam. 3:22-23) and not just on New Year’s Day.

In 2021, Rayner Conway was downsizing her four-story, 3,500-square-foot home to a condo less than half the size when her husband of 50 years died unexpectedly. The designer the couple had tasked with preparing the space, faced a fresh challenge. Could she devise a comfy home for her suddenly solo client—whom she calls “a firecracker”—while also making a tough transition not just bearable, but invigorating?

The article went on to explain how the designer had a strategy for "spotlighting meaningful artwork, weaving in treasured heirlooms and swathing the rooms in a bright palette designed to stand out, not hide away."

Conway said, “Many women of my generation look at [downsizing] as giving up their previous life, but I saw a new chapter. I’m 73. I can do whatever … I want.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In sharp contrast, in the Kingdom of God, growing older or “retirement” doesn’t mean doing whatever I want. It’s an opportunity to serve God and others and leave a Christ-honoring legacy.

After Abraham Walker’s older brother was shot and killed in a home invasion, he decided to move his family from New Orleans to Northern Virginia. He was drawn by the chance to give his boys a life in which they wouldn’t see the loss of friends and relatives as “normal.”

He describes himself as an “aggressive optimist” who looks for the good during the awful, and when he doesn’t see it, he tries to create it. It’s why when he clicked on a Facebook page for residents in a neighboring county, he read through the posts and then started typing: “What are some positive things that have happened to you because of COVID-19?”

In the days since, hundreds of people have responded, offering comments that tell of everything from simple appreciations to life-altering revelations:

I have been having the BEST time with my 4-year-old. I never thought of myself as a good mother, but this isolation has brought us so close together.

I successfully grew a tomato.

We have a swing set in our yard now.

Before COVID I just got up late, ran around in a panic, usually in a bad mood or at least sad, endured a road rage-filled commute, and arrived at the office late. ... Now I wake up and think, “Oh, I woke up again” and then I go out to my balcony amidst the pine trees and the chirping birds and rising sun.

Walker has also been thinking about some posts long after he read them:

I think a lot of people are going to be so traumatized by their old lives that they won’t go back. I hope some people don’t go back. That’s the beautiful thing about destruction. You used to have a life. The coronavirus destroyed that life. You now get to decide how you rebuild that life.

Walker says his brother’s death was a tragedy, but it pushed him to relocate to Northern Virginia, where his family has created a life, made friends, and connected with neighbors. He says, “Look at the afterward. History tells us there is always an afterward.”

In 1943, a young pastor was offered the opportunity to take over a popular Gospel Radio program called Songs in the Night. Since the cost of keeping the program on air was rather high, the pastor, who had a large vision to reach souls with the gospel, told his board that he would be willing to forgo part of his salary to help defray the costs involved. The suggestion was eventually accepted by the board.

The young pastor then approached a well-known Gospel singer, requesting him to sing and lead the choir on the program. After initially trying to back out, the singer eventually agreed to help out. That decision would change the course of his life and ministry forever! He later said, “It was the beginning – the humble beginning – of an unbelievable journey…It was exciting to be a part of something wonderful unfolding”.

The Gospel singer was George Beverly Shea and the young pastor’s name was Billy Graham.

Possible Preaching Angles: Similarly, when we take decisions that seek to glorify God, He will lead us to opportunities and open doors that only He can bring about. The God- honoring decisions we take will surely determine our destiny.

In his book A Journey to Bethlehem, Jason Soroski offers the following definitions of a resolution:

Resolution. Webster defines the word as being "marked by firm determination." The word dominates every New Year's Eve.

To the musician, a "resolution" is a harmony line moving from a dissonant tone (one that does not fit the melody) to a consonant tone (one that fits). Harmonies can dance and amaze us with varied complexities for a while, but they must eventually resolve.

To the writer, a resolution is the end of a story, the final element of a twisting plot wrought with conflict, finally resolved to an ending where all is well.

To the chemist, it is the separation of a chemical compound back into its constituents, or simplest parts.

To the statesman, it is an expression of the determined will of an elected body.

To the graphic artist, it is the sharpness of the pixel count on a screen, and the quality of the image produced.

By any definition, a Resolution is characterized by a return to simplicity, a focus on sharp definition and determination, broken down to its simplest, most harmonious parts. Without resolution, art, science, government, and life in general all fall into chaos. Without resolution, there is no foundation on which to stand.

How do you prepare for the New Year? Here are some interesting New Year's traditions from around the globe:

• In Siberia it is tradition to dive into a frozen lake while holding a tree trunk, which is placed underneath the ice.
• In a traditional festival from Burma, people splash water on one another to start the New Year with a purified soul.
• Armenian mothers bake special bread which they knead with good luck and good wishes.
• In the Philippines homeowners open all their doors and windows on New Year's Eve in order to allow negative energy to leave and good energy to enter.
• Spanish tradition holds that eating 12 grapes just before the clock chimes midnight will bring good fortune for all 12 months of the upcoming year.
• One New Year's custom in Russia is to write a wish for the upcoming year on a piece of paper, then to burn the paper and place the ashes in a glass of champagne, which needs to be consumed right before the New Year is rung in for the wish to come true.
• Residents in Johannesburg, South Africa throw old appliances and furniture out the window, representing the old adage "out with the old and in with the new."
• Brazilians wear white clothing, a custom meant to bring good luck for the upcoming year. This is often accompanied by a trip to the beach to throw flowers in the sea while making a wish.

John Wainwright was the first person, not affiliated with Amazon, to purchase a book from Amazon. The book Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies by Douglas Hofstadter. Wainwright paid $27.95 for the book back on April 3, 1995. "It was not the easiest of orders for Amazon, especially for the company's very first book sale. 'That purchase is still part of my Amazon history,' Wainwright says." Now in honor of being the first person to buy a book Amazon is naming a building after Wainwright.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even Amazon began with one purchase over 25 years ago. Amazon had to start small to build itself up. It is amazing how one little act can make a big difference 25 years later.

Eighty-six year old Joy Johnson, a veteran of 25 New York City marathons, died with her running shoes on. Johnson, who was the oldest runner in this year's marathon, fell at the 20 mile marker in the event. She crossed the finish line at about eight hours. After the race she returned to her hotel room, lay down with her shoes on, and never woke up.

Amazingly, Johnson didn't run her first marathon until she was sixty-one years old. The only hint of the sport was the verse from Isaiah 40:31 which hung on the kitchen wall in her family farm home in rural Minnesota: "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Ironically, the career gym teacher, Johnson was a stranger to personal exercise until she took a three-mile walk in 1986. Then she started jogging and competing in 10-K races. By 1988 she had competed in her first New York City Marathon. Three years later she recorded her best time at age sixty-four with a time of 3 hours and 55 minutes.

A few years ago she told a reporter about her exercise regimen. She would wake up at 4 A.M., drink her coffee while reading her Bible, and then set out on an eight mile pre-dawn run. "When you wake up it can either be a good day or a bad day," Ms. Johnson said. "I always say, 'It's going to be a good day.'"

The devout Christian ran every day but Sunday so she could attend church. Johnson sang hymns to herself to pass the time while running. According to Johnson's daughter, "She was always a happy runner—and besides her faith and family, this was something she loved the most."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Change; New Beginnings—It's never too late and you're never too old to start a new journey with God—conversion, discipleship, ministry, etc. (2) Attitudes; Joy; Gratitude—Ms. Johnson epitomized an attitude of joy and gratitude. (3) Advent; New Year's Day—Advent and New Year's Day are especially two times in the church's year when people can start a new or deeper relationship with Christ.

Prayer is easier than we think. We want to think it is too hard or too high and holy for us, because that gives us an excuse for not doing it. This is false humility. We can all do it, even the most sinful, shallow, silly, and stupid of us.

You do not have to master some mystical method. You do not have to master a method at all. Can you talk to a friend? Then you can talk to God, for he is your Friend. And that is what prayer is. The single most important piece of advice about prayer is one word: Begin! God makes it easy: just do it!

God also makes it easy to progress in prayer …. for it gradually becomes more natural and delightful.

Before serving as a Methodist minister from 2000 to 2010 near Nashville, Tennessee, John M. Eades spent two decades as a therapist counseling drug and alcohol addicts. But his professional expertise did not prevent his descent into compulsive gambling.

His downfall began when some friends pestered him into accompanying them to a casino. Although Eades had never been a gambler, the urge to play the slot machines that was sparked that night escalated into daily casino visits.

"I went every afternoon after work and stayed until late, and I'd go every weekend," recalls Eades, 68. Missing church was no concern. At the time, Eades only attended sporadically.

Within two years, he had maxed out 17 credit cards and amassed $245,000 in gambling debts. One night, driving home from the casino, Eades decided to kill himself. He pulled over at a rest stop and reached into the glove compartment for his .357 Magnum. The gun was gone. Upon reaching home, Eades hugged his wife, Karen, and thanked her for saving his life by hiding the weapon. But he was in for another surprise.

"I didn't take the gun to save your life," Karen told him. "I sold it so we could pay the electric bill."

Soon, the economic strain became too much for Karen. She swallowed an entire bottle of pills in front of her husband. After getting his wife's stomach pumped at a hospital, Eades tried to escape his own depression by going off to gamble.

Later, in a drastic step to remove temptation, Eades moved to a Tennessee town 300 miles away from the nearest casino. He agreed to Karen's request that they attend church regularly. Yet Eades secretly started stashing money in his car trunk for a planned trip to a Mississippi casino.

Another suicide attempt, this time by his 27-year-old daughter, Ginger, over a failed relationship, finally prompted Eades to change …. He opened his car trunk and gave the $600 he had saved for gambling to his wife.

Today Eades is in recovery and marvels at the power the addiction had over his life. "When you're in an addiction and you look back, it's just like you were an insane person," says Eades …. "You cannot believe the things you did."

Eades says there can be no removal of addictive desires or recovery without God's intervention. He also credits Karen, his wife of 48 years.

"When you're [an addict] you really want people to leave you alone so you can feel sorry for yourself and keep [up your addiction]," Eades says. "It's very important to have [someone] who loves you enough to stay with you through it."

J.R.R. Tolkien, the British author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a devout Christian who wanted his books to awaken people to the biblical struggle between good and evil. Tolkien also humbly believed that all his creativity was a "supreme gift" which came straight from God. While he was working as a university professor, Tolkien had the following experience, which he claimed was the beginning of The Hobbit and then eventually The Lord of the Rings:

I was doing the dull work of correcting exam papers when I came upon a blank page someone had turned in—a boon to all exam makers. I turned it over and wrote on the back, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" [that sentence would become the first line for The Hobbit]. I'd never even heard of a hobbit or used the word before."

Later on he would also say, "I have long ceased to invent [my stories]. I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself." And in a personal letter he described his writing process: "The Other Power [God] then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself), 'that one ever-present Person who is never absent …'"

Stuck in a dead-end job and strapped for money, Kyle MacDonald came up with an improbable plan: starting with one red paperclip, he would trade on the Internet until he exchanged it for a house.

First, he traded the red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. Next, he traded the pen for a doorknob. He traded the doorknob for a Coleman stove. He traded the Coleman stove for an electric generator. He traded the electric generator for a Budweiser sign and a keg of beer, which he then traded for a snowmobile. Exactly one year and 14 trades later, MacDonald finally reached his goal: he exchanged a part in a Hollywood movie for a home in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The true story of Kyle MacDonald is told in his book One Red Paperclip. Now the book is being made into a movie. Fame, fortune, a book, a movie deal, and a home—it all began with one red paperclip.

Sounds incredible, doesn't it? But I believe our Christian faith is like that red paperclip. Jesus said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we will be able to move mountains (Matthew 17:20). A mustard seed is very small—far smaller than a paperclip. And yet, Jesus says if we have that much faith, "Nothing will be impossible for you."

Shawna Pilat had had enough. It was Sunday morning in January of 2000, and her husband, Rick, still wasn't home from his Saturday night partying. "I was at home with my son, Drake, who was 3 at the time," Shawna remembers. "It was very common for Rick to be out all night…. I always knew there was unfaithfulness. That bothered me, naturally, but I was worried about Rick's safety—that he was going to turn up some place dead. And that morning I was at the end of my rope."

As Shawna angrily washed dishes in the kitchen, she noticed a man speaking on the television. She was quickly drawn to his message—he was funny and warm, and seemed to be speaking at her level. "I felt something come over me that I can't explain," she remembers. "I couldn't quit crying. At the end of the program it said, 'Join us,' and it gave the name of a church in Winnipeg. I couldn't get my son dressed fast enough."

On the way to the church, Shawna had one purpose in mind: getting emotionally strong enough to kick Rick out. She had tried using marijuana, alcohol, and various relationships to put Rick out of her heart. Now she thought she'd found the answer. But God had a surprise for her.

At the end of the message, the pastor invited people to give their lives to Christ. Shawna raised her hand. "I never looked back," Shawna says. "Three weeks later, Rick asked if he could join me at church."

Rick knew that his behavior was hurting his family, but he was held captive to drugs and sexual addictions. After four or five weeks of attending church with his wife, he recognized his need for Christ. Still, the following months weren't easy. "I was going to church and wanting to do right," he says, "but I kept doing wrong." It wasn't until a Promise Keepers seminar that he finally came to understand the importance of repentance and accepting the forgiveness God offers through Jesus Christ. That day, Rick went home and told his wife, "I can be the husband you need me to be now."

Rick and Shawna's lives took a 180-degree turn that day. They became active in their church and now serve as Promise Keepers volunteers who share the hope of God's restoration and forgiveness with struggling couples. "When I think how Jesus can change people—no matter how deep in sin they are—that overwhelms me," Rick says. "If he did it for us, he can do it for anybody."

This article was taken from Decision magazine, December 2006; ©2006 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; used by permission, all rights reserved.

Bill and Amy Stearns, in their book 20/20 Vision, relate how the gospel came to Mongolia:

In the 1870s Swedish missionaries arrived in Mongolia—what was called "Outer Mongolia." After four decades of several teams' blood, sweat, and tears, not a single indigenous church had been established. Then in 1921 Mongolia earned the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world to voluntarily invite the Soviets to bring communism to their country. In the ensuing purge, every vestige of Christianity—as well as any other religion—was erased, and more than one million Lamaisric Buddhist priests were slaughtered. Religion was dead in Mongolia.

In 1980 a young Mongolian whom we'll call Yi (Mongolians traditionally have only one name) went to study at a university in Moscow. Yi received an English-language Bible from a fellow student from Tanzania. "You can study English with it," the Tanzanian student explained. Yi then studied the Word for seven years, returning to Mongolia and rising to a top English interpreter position with the government. In 1987 Yi was assigned to an American big-game tourist group, which had come to Mongolia to hunt bear. Doug Coe, a Christian, was one of the tourists.

During the hunting trip Yi found the opportunity to secretly ask Doug, "Do you know God?" Doug nodded.

Three hours later, Yi was able to whisper, "What is his name?"

"Jesus Christ."

In bits and pieces of stolen conversations throughout the rest of the big-game hunt, Doug was able to introduce Yi to Jesus.

"Don't worry," he told Yi. "I know it's illegal to be a Christian, and it will be hard for you. But friends will come." Then the foreign hunters left Mongolia.

Three years later Yi was assigned to another foreign tour group—a cowboy team of Navajo, Winnebago, Cocapaw, and other Native Americans who came to Mongolia to perform in the national nadim, a competition in horsemanship. Of course, the group was a Christian Native American cowboy team. So Yi translated their testimonies on national TV and interpreted their explanation of the Gospel to press groups and officials. Several Mongolians responded to the team's challenge to receive Christ, and Yi spent hours and hours drinking in everything the team knew about the Word. Then they too had to leave Mongolia.

Yi began discipling those who'd come to Christ through the cowboys' ministry. Then another tour group came, a few members of which happened to be pastors. The ministers, after days of intense discipling, realized the depth of Yi's Bible knowledge and the unusual bursts of his spiritual insights. So they all gathered in a hotel room in Ulaan Bataar one very cold day in November 1990 and ordained Yi as an elder of the first Mongolian church in the history of the world!

In 2002, the state of Missouri awarded a grant to their police department's Youth Outreach Unit. The purpose of the $273,000 grant was to battle Goth culture.

Although Goth and Gothic are terms with historical significance, beginning in the late 1970s the word Goth began to refer to devotees of a certain type of music. The music has punk-rock origins, and fans developed a gothic look. That look includes dressing in black, wearing white face makeup, painting fingernails and lips black, and a fascination with death and the supernatural.

Funded by the state grant, the Youth Outreach Unit attempted to tackle the problem of "saving" young people from that subculture. The initial cost of setting up the program was $141,000. In the course of their efforts, the unit made a discovery that necessitated returning the remainder of the grant to the state. A total of $132,000 was given back after the Youth Outreach Unit was unable to find any Missouri youth who were influenced by Goth culture.

In 1804, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to find the source of the Missouri River, and from there to discover a relatively easy water route west to the Pacific. Such a waterway, they discovered, doesn't exist.

But they did succeed in mapping the Northwest and, 15 months after they began pushing themselves upstream, they found, near today's Montana-Idaho border, the source of the mighty Missouri.

Lewis's journal records that on August 12, 1805, a member of the expedition, Private Hugh McNeal, "exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his God that he had lived to bestride the mighty and heretofore deemed endless Missouri."

The Missouri at its source looks a lot different than the powerful current that flows into the Mississippi River near St. Louis!

And in the Kingdom, too, many great things start out small.

The oft-enjoyed game of "Monopoly" has one card that is discovered occasionally when someone lands on "Chance": "Return to 'Go'-collect $200." The irony of the directive is that in one respect it seems to penalize, but in another it rewards. And so it is with God. There may be no way to forget the foolishness of our blind pursuits that end in cul-de-sacs, but the God we "began" with ... will seek us ... and draw us back to the beginning.

On a plaque marking Abraham Lincoln's birthplace near Hodgenville, Kentucky, is recorded this scrap of conversation:

"Any news down t' the village, Ezry?"

"Well, Squire McLains's gone t' Washington t' see Madison swore in, and ol' Spellman tells me this Bonaparte fella has captured most o' Spain. What's new out here, neighbor?"

"Nuthin', nuthin' a'tall, 'cept fer a new baby born t' Tom Lincoln's. Nothin' ever happens out here."

Some events, whether birthdays in Hodgenville (or Bethlehem) or spiritual rebirth in a person's life, may not create much earthly splash, but those of lasting importance will eventually get the notice they deserve.