The New Start
January 2022 |
Tuxedo, white gloves, top hat, and gift in hand. For her, a black dress with gold sequins, exquisite shoes, and expensive hairdo. Then it’s off to a New Year’s celebration. As the time ticks down on 2021, there is the anticipation of something exciting soon to arrive. The stroke of midnight becomes the epicenter for a new start. However, a new day or a new year does not guarantee a new start.
Myths, Media, And Magazines
Myths, the media, and magazines team up to give the illusion that New Year’s always brings hope. To those who experienced pain, suffering, and loss this year, New Year’s represents the turning of a new page. We’ve finished with the previous year, and we are about to start all over. We compartmentalize the struggles and sadness of the previous year as if they are receipts kept aside in a box in case of an IRS audit. It’s a new start.
Continues As Before
A new year does not guarantee a new start. Most things will remain the same. Newton’s first law of motion states that “an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Simply put, what was happening before New Year’s continues unless something is done to stop that motion. What was motionless before New Year’s will continue to be motionless unless a force is applied putting it into motion.
Old Things Are Passed Away
The problems of life do not simply vanish just because we yell out, “Happy New Year!” as if a mystical magical incantation can remove the negative and promote the positive. It just doesn’t work that way. There is, however, a proven way of guaranteeing a new start, a new beginning, or a do-over. There is a way in which the frustration of failures can be neutralized. Paul talks about it in his second letter to the church in Corinth, “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17). Isn’t that what we are really looking for? Aren’t we looking for the old things of 2021 to be taken away from us and all things to become new on New Year’s?
All Things Can Become New
We need to look at the whole verse and not just the desired results. Paul tells us how old things can become new. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17). The “new start” begins by coming to Christ. Through believing that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is full payment for each and every one of our sins, we can have the new start we long for. We can see old moral failures removed. Our slate is wiped clean. In Christ, the old is removed. All things become new. We become a new creation. The Bible calls this being born again.
Take It To Jesus
Each believer has access to the throne of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. We can bring to Him every failure. For those things that remain, God gives us the grace and guidance we need to endure it and even grow through it. They may not become new for us but maybe our attitude toward those things may become new. Either way, we rest in the promise that “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). If it hasn’t worked out for good yet, it simply means God is not finished yet. Reaffirm, reestablish, and refresh your relationship with Christ, and you will experience Him like never before. Have a Christ-filled new year.
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