January

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As I enter each New Year I am always moved to consider what it means to “be new”. Let’s look at some of the passages of scripture that talk about what it means to be new.

Psalm 98 – 1O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.

Singing a new song always begins with remembering what God has done in the past. I remember the blessings of family and friends, the joy of accomplishments and the rising again from brokenness. I know it all comes from God and that if God gave new life in the past, the New Year holds no less. The new is always about the marvelous goodness of God.

Psalm 40:3 – 3He (God) put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

When I read these words I realize that I cannot make things new – only God can. We are too much slaves to the old ways. Only God can set us free to be new and different people in the world. I have made more New Year’s resolutions then I can think of … and have kept none of them on my own. Yet each year I am made new! I’m given new opportunities and new beginnings and it all comes from God. Now each New Year begins with a simple focus- God please guide me into new places.

Isaiah 43:19: – I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

God is always doing new things but that requires us to watch for the newness. It is so easy to miss. Shortly after Cris and I got married my parents got new carpet. Cris noticed it right away. But my mom told her not to tell me and see if I noticed. I didn’t. Five hours later they had to tell me, I wasn’t looking. In this New Year are you looking for God at work??

Mark 2:22 – And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’

You can’t have new life without letting go of some cherished ways of thinking. The new vision of God requires us to become new in all kinds of ways. As I get older I am realizing that I have to give up some of my old loves and old ways of doing things- because I can’t anymore. But letting go of some things, like softball, may allow me to take the time to enter something new like Yoga. Often we focus too much on what we lose and not enough on what we might be invited into and allowed to do by the loss of the old. This is especially true in many spiritual matters.