With as many times as you have made the statement “Happy New Year” this month, I imagine you did not pose it as a question.

We use this greeting often during the changing of the calendar year as a cordial blessing to one another. I appreciate each time someone offers me hope for my future 12 months to be filled with happiness.

The reason I wish to consider it as a question is because I fear that for many, it is not going to be happy or even new. Yes, it is a new set of 365 days of opportunities that have not been lived out yet, but is it really going to be new? According to King Solomon, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

So, is there truly nothing new under the sun, or can we actually have a happy, new set of days in a year? Well, the context of Solomon’s observations is critical to not misinterpreting his statement. At this juncture in Solomon’s life, he was not living wisely. In fact, he was living foolishly. He had left off living according to God’s Word, exchanging it for living according to the ways of the world around him. He was living life under the sun, as a mere man, and not under God, as a man of God. Therefore, his observations, frustrations, lack of fulfillment and emptiness in the product of his life are accurate and valid.

However, these do not have to be the experiences of every person living life. We can have a future of newness. If we live under God’s direction and in his presence, life does not have to be mundane or vain. Life lived with God as a personal relationship and lived according to his direction is not mere existence; it is indeed a wonderful, exciting journey filled with joy, peace, contentment and guiltless pleasure.

It all begins with the newness of life that comes in a personal relationship with the Holy God of creation by faith in Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that his presence with us makes all things in our lives new, because now all things in our life belong to him, according to II Corinthians 5:17-18.

I hope you do have a “happy” year, a “new” year filled with great blessings from the Lord even in the normalcy of life.

Franklin Humber is pastor of the Summerville Baptist Church.