A New Year, A New Start
I like January 1. I know it is just a date on the calendar, but it feels like more than just a number. It marks the start of a whole new year. More than just a new year, it feels like an opportunity to start everything fresh, to say goodbye to the failures and missed opportunities and start over, new. For me, the new year comes with some excitement as one chapter is closed and a new chapter begins.
“12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
The great thing about the new chapter is that in many ways it doesn’t feel like we are just moving to the next chapter and continuing the same story, it feels like we are starting over at the very first chapter! The past is gone. The day is new. We begin again with all of the new possibilities. It is a chance to rewrite the story, to make it a new story. I love that because I need that.
The new year reminds me of something the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians. He was a work in progress. Paul had not reached his goals; he had not accomplished all that he wanted, but he didn’t dwell there, there in what remained unfinished, there in what may have been deemed a failing. In part, when he says, ‘forgetting what is behind,’ I believe Paul meant all of his years pursuing status as a Pharisee, all of the years spent striving for power, place, prestige, wealth, popularity and more (see Philippians 3:1-10). Forgetting what was left undone, forgetting all of the failures, forgetting the years of wrong pursuits, Paul strained, strived, worked toward a new possibility - he pressed on. That’s what I feel with the start of the new year! I am not held to the failures of 2020. I am not weighed down by all that wasn’t accomplished or the thousand wrong pursuits - I can press on unhindered and free, those things have no hold on me!
The truth is, in Christ, I don’t have to wait until the new year to experience that freedom. It is mine every day! That’s how grace works. My sins and failures are forgiven when I turn from them and turn to Him. First John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins He is faithful to forgive us. And when He forgives, He forgives to the fullest, forevermore - as far as the east is from the west, so our sins are removed from us (Psalm 103:12). We are free, like Paul, free from the burdens of our sins, free from the failures and wrong pursuits, free to press on toward all that should be, all that could be, all that He has for us in Christ.
Amazing isn’t it!? Oh, who doesn’t need that?
So it is 2021. How exciting!
You and I have an opportunity for a new start. We have the opportunity to start a whole new chapter, and not at Chapter 35 but at Chapter 1 if that’s where we need to start.
What will you do with that, your fresh start?
What will this chapter hold?
Accept the grace that is yours because of Jesus and press on in this new year. Strive to be all that you were created to be! Strain to accomplish all that He has set before you. Know that when you stumble, His grace doesn’t wait for 2022, it is yours every day.
And don’t do it alone.
You and I need help in this crazy, broken world! We need to be reminded of the good news of daily grace. We need someone to tell us from time to time that those sins don’t define us and those failures don’t stop us. We need to hear the good news again and again of his amazing grace.
Don’t let even this COVID pandemic keep you away from people who will keep you pressing on!
If you have a church family, be with them, re-engage, recommit to life with them. You can’t do this alone.
If you don’t have a church family I can strongly recommend 3 possibilities!
New City Macon, New City East Side and New City Milledgeville
Stop waiting. Its the perfect time for a New Start, the perfect time to write a new chapter, even begin a whole new story!
