NEW BEGINNINGS
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
A new year always seems to bring with it the opportunity for new beginnings. We associate the word resolution with New Year. The word resolution, as defined in the dictionary, has to do with a “firm determination; a course of action determined or decided upon.” We may determine to exercise regularly, eat healthier, spend more time with family, finish a project, or work to improve a specific relationship.
Hopefully, we have some spiritual resolutions as well: a regular devotional time, attending church on a more regular basis, meeting friends for a weekly Bible study, or becoming involved in a Church mission project. And possibly, one of the relationships we would like to improve upon is our relationship to God. A new year brings with it joy and a bundle of challenges. Some of us will resolve to overcome these challenges and some of us will be overcome by them. I want to consider four obstacles that can prevent us from experiencing a new beginning.
I. THE INABILITY TO LET GO OF THE PAST
You know as well as I that the past can symbolically and sometimes quite literally chain us down. Memory can be a blessing or a burden. How many of us have spent so much time analyzing a past event and replaying it in our minds even though the outcome cannot be changed? We can become paralyzed to venture onward. There have been interesting contrasts of individuals who have faced very similar situations in life, reaping very different results.
I like the story of the two brothers who were separated at a young age and placed in different foster care facilities. The boys came from an abusive family and had an alcoholic father. After the parents’ divorce, the brothers were removed from the family and placed in different homes.
Thirty years later, the two brothers met in a downtown subway for the first time. One brother was dressed distinctively and had a career in the legal profession, and the other was obviously without work or a place to live. Somehow, the two men began a discussion and the conversation led to their upbringing and how it affected their current situations. The disheveled man recounted to the other his miserable story of growing up in an abusive home, where his father had been a heavy drinker and how he had been from foster home to foster home. To the other man he looked as if this explained his current lot in life.
Interestingly, the other man said, “I too grew up in a similar environment as you have described, but it has inspired me to move forward and move ahead in life.” Interesting, is it not? We see here two men with similar past times, and one was blaming his failure in life and the other his success in life on a virtually identical upbringing.
We all know that life is more complicated than this story, don't we? We have issues like heredity, environment, and personality to consider. I suppose the story has a grain of truth to it as well, for perhaps it is the element of choice that may make all the difference in the world. The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible proclaims in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Everything has passed away; see, everything has become new.” The Apostle Paul is saying that our rap sheets have been erased in Christ. In Him, we are made new creations.
Paul should have known. Remember when the apostle was converted to Christianity after years of oppressing Jewish-Christians? Even with the testimony of his good friend Barnabas and the disciples as character references, Jewish-Christians were not all that convinced of the sincerity of Paul. They thought the apostle's conversion was a secret plot to infiltrate the Jewish-Christian movement even more and further persecute them.
They did not trust Paul. Can you blame them? Even though the Apostle Paul had been converted, his crimes against Jewish-Christians could not easily be forgotten or forgiven. Paul was probably haunted by a “less-than-perfect past,” but this did not stop his new mission. In his letter to the Church at Philippi, Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14: “But this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ.”
Whatever hand has been dealt us, a new set of cards is always being dealt. In Christ, the Bible promises that our past, as blemished as it may be, is erased. But to begin again, we must be present and future-minded people of faith, believing that God indeed has a plan for our lives. We are part of his majestic plan. God calls us from the prisons of the past to the freedoms of the future.
II. NOT HAVING A SENSE OF GOD'S PLAN FOR OUR LIVES
I believe that a sense of purpose is instilled in humans from a very early age, and that is why it is important for parents and other caregivers to nurture this. But purpose should never be confused with performance. Who I am is never entirely what I do.
I was reading Parade magazine, and the editors were asking teens how they would like to be remembered at a class reunion twenty years from now. One teen said, “I want them to come up to me and say they bought every color of my new line of clothing.” Other responses were similar, most having to do with fame, money, and living the “high life.” Now, I am not here to say that an aspiration for fame is bad in and of itself, but it can mess up our priorities if we’re not careful.
One teen's response caught my attention: “I would like to be remembered as being a friend to everyone.” That seems like a noble or admirable response. From an early age, some of us associate purpose with performance. In other words, our worth is all tied up in our accomplishments, and if we do not reach a certain goal, we feel empty.
What is our purpose, from God's perspective? How do I fit into God's plan? These may be some important questions for us to consider. The Apostle Paul had a mission statement, which I presented to you earlier from Philippians. It involved a heavenly quest.
What is our quest? We do not have to be an apostle, a minister, the president, or anyone famous to be employed or used by God. We can fulfill our mission wherever we may be in life. Have you experienced that unconditional acceptance from God, who says, “I can use you!”?
III. THE BELIEF THAT WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD
This erroneous view says that we must meet some unattainable standard before we can be of any use to God. Imagine with me for a moment if members of the Church Universal did not come until they were “good enough.” Every church would be empty indefinitely.
The fact is we cannot be “good enough” for God. Our ability to come before a Holy God is made possible through Jesus Christ. Christ is the lens through which God sees His creation. Of course, beginning again means that we must be willing to confess our sin and accept the forgiveness of God made through Jesus Christ.
One of the mistakes I make is thinking that when I try to begin again or start over it is either a one-time shot or it is all the way—or none of the way. I then become easily frustrated when I would go back to my old nature. From a spiritual perspective, I am tempted, at times, just to give up. I feel like I have disappointed God yet again.
Why should I start over? The old nature can certainly be stubborn, can't it? But beginning anew is not a one-time deal. SALVATION IS. But then comes sanctification. And sanctification is a process, if you will. It involves stumbling and then picking yourself up. It means rolling with the punches and not being controlled by external circumstances. Take Paul, for example. The Road to Damascus did not suddenly obliterate Paul's sinful nature. Even as a mature and faithful Christian, Paul sometimes struggled, not with the good he knew, but with the reality of the bad nature he experienced.
IV. THE BELIEF THAT PEOPLE CANNOT CHANGE
On the evening of April 25, 1958, a young Korean exchange student, who was a leader in student Christian affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, left his flat and went to the corner to post a letter to his parents, who were still living in Korea. Turning from the mailbox, he stepped into a group of eleven leather-jacketed teenage boys. Without a word, they attacked him, beating him with lead pipes, their shoes, and their fists. Later, when the police found the young Korean exchange student, he had died in a gutter.
All of Philadelphia cried out for vengeance. The district attorney even secured the legal authority to have the teenage boys tried as adults, so they could face the death penalty. Then a letter arrived from Korea that made everyone pause and think about the situation.
The parents and twenty of his other relatives signed it. It read, in part, “Our family has met together, and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to those who committed this criminal action. In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to send money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of the boys when they are released. We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins.”
Is your initial instinct that these boys could change and be redirected and rehabilitated? I do not know the rest of the story, and while I am certain that I could not have had the same compassion as the Korean family, I do know one thing from this story. The Korean family obviously believed in the ability of Christ to change people. They had seen this change in their own lives. It is a challenge, make no mistake about it. But we can begin again and again and again regardless of our past or present situation. For we serve a God who sees us not as we are, but rather for whom we might become. And that is a promise that is good anytime of the year.
