It's a new year, Whoop Whoop! 2020 can do one!
It's 2021...anything can happen... the world's our oyster... new year, new you.... Gotta be in it to win it... fresh start... new year's resolutions... open a new chapter... life begins... adventure awaits... new beginnings... when one door closes, another one opens...
But of course, we're all a bit shattered and worn down, by the previous year, so actually we would rather curl up under the duvet, than tentatively see what is behind Door Number '21. We'd rather not open a new chapter, as we're a bit shocked by the one we just lived through. How can we look forward to a fresh start when the world is feeling pretty stale?! Instead of fresh air, weve got our own musty masked breath to breathe in. It's hard to think about the newness of life, when we're actually faced with the reality of death and loss. Adventure itself, has been whittled down to, "I got pasta today", and the new me, is simply just the same old me, just a bit slower, and lonlier, and no one actually likes Oysters!
Well, that was a quick turn of emotion from hope to despair. But I think sometimes that can be what is wrong with new year's resolutions; they promise so much, and then disappointment creeps in, either through circumstance or in my case, a sheer lack of discipline. The husband has always been a Monday person... he loves the hope and fresh start that a Monday brings. He owns it. It's his for the taking. It's a blank canvas. Anything can happen, and he actually plans for it to happen, and sees it through, so it does indeed happen. I've always admired this about him, (shh don't tell him) but admired it from a distance, whilst avoiding him on these days in case he inspires me.
I made a vlog the morning of New Year's Day, on my own, out of the house, in a car park with a cuppa, watching people out on cold walks. (Side note, some people have excellent coats, like sleeping bags with a hole for the legs, and some people's dogs are better warmed than I am). Anyway, I guess I felt a glimmer of 'newness' on that morning. I dropped my son off to his Pops' house, to walk a few hours over the Downs, back to our house. (Thankfully only two people can walk together presently, otherwise they may have invited me, and no one needs that much inspiration on the first day of a new year). I took my new Lou Felli journal with me, in the hope of a bit of me time, a bit of reflection, maybe to start the year with a bit of intentionality, and I ended up doing a vlog saying all that I guess. Took seven minutes to say what you can write in one sentence.
And regardless of whether you're a fresh Monday person, or a stale Saturday kind of person, the thing that we all have to come back to, is Scipture. I'm not very good at consistently reading my Bible. Maybe this year will be different, maybe it wont. I've read two out of the three days from the Bible reading plan, so that's over 60% success so far. However, I have read enough of the Bible over the years (obviously you can never read 'enough' of it), to know that the Bible does talk a lot about newness. It talks a whole load about being weary, resting and needing strengthening too...
But newness is up there, simply and quite astonishingly because of what Jesus has done. Whether you're feeling inspired for the new year ahead, or you're crawling through with the burdens of last year on your back, Jesus remains the same. And He came to restore, to refresh and to rescue. He came to bring His new mercies, to make us a new creation, to give us new birth, to secure a new hope, to gift us with a new heart, so we may live a new way, and live in the goodness of a new life; a life with Him. And that is always a good place to start.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1v3
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 corinthians 5v17I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36v26
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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3v13-14
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43v18-19
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
they are *new every morning; great is your faithfulness. lamentations 3v22-23
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