Everywhere I've gone this week. Everyone I've talked to. It has been the same thing. A big sigh of relief. An enormous exhale. A collective hoping. A universal embracing of the new year. Bring it on!
We all want it. Need it. Crave it. Come to it. Hope for it. Hang all of our hats upon it.
New. New. New.
It's our January vocabulary.
And I get it. I've always had a thing for cycles and seasons; a romance with new chapters and blank slates and fresh starts. I don't know about you, but I'm a do-over kind of gal through and through.
Let me take another stab at that! Another crack at it!
Let's start this game over! Whether it be basketball or board games.
Let's begin again!
Gosh. I'm an addict when it comes to another attempt and all things new. Always hopeful I'll get it right. This time. Next time.
Confidently certain the second or seventieth time will be the charm.
And so that's what January does for us.
Flip the calendar page and start again. Anew. Afresh. Awake. Always.
Perhaps God intended this very thing. He wired us to know we desperately need do-overs. No matter who we are or how we've been living, we need clean slates and fresh starts.
It's exactly why He sent Jesus.
It's exactly what He wants to do in our lives.
Renew. Refresh. Redeem. Rebirth. Restart.
And it's not just a January gig, it's for eternity. Forever.
He washes away all of the old, the ugly, the offensive and He makes us clean. All clear. White as freshly fallen snow.
“though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." Isaiah 1:18
We are so willing to try so much—New gyms and diets and classes. I read that the United States alone publishes over 15,000 self-help books each year.
Except we can’t really help our selves. Not really. Sure we can learn to do things better. We can set goals and make resolutions, but that’s only going to take us to next January. Maybe, to just March. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve written the list and set the goals and tried all the tries. It’s so tiring. So tiresome.
But it isn’t January which gives us a clean slate, it’s Jesus.
It isn’t the new year that gives us new life.
It’s a new life which gives us a new year.
Without that kind of new, it’s just the same old, same old. Again and again and again. You know. I know.
A month. A year. A calendar. A book. A list. A program.
None of that is going to cut it. None can cut deep enough into our staunch-selves and stony-hearts. It simply cannot. If you’ve tried everything else, perhaps it’s time to try Jesus. He works from the inside out.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26
There’s nothing we need to do, but seek Him. We don’t have to come all cleaned up and cleared out. That’s what He will do for us. Just come. As you are. Nothing else is needed. No paperwork, no pre-requisites, no dotted line, no nothing. Just come. What do we have to lose? Even that program or self-help book that we buy (and probably won't finish) will cost us more money. But life without Jesus will cost us everything.
Our hope is not found in the passing month of January, but in the Perfect Man of Jesus.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17
