Search
Close this search box.

Ministry. Marriage. Motherhood. There have been times I wasn’t sure I’d survive them. Sometimes they come together in a tsunami of life and I think I’m going to go right under.

Not a positive way to start the new year is it? Especially if it’s one filled with promise. Or maybe it’s already started on the negative and that kind of thought isn’t going to make it get any better.

IMG_2199

January 1 always comes wrapped up shiny and bright, luring us to raise our expectations, hope for better things to come and generally feel good. Until the first major crisis. For some of us, it didn’t take very long for that to happen.

That’s just it. Life happens. None of us can go through all 365 days and not have the stuff that makes up life thrown at us. It’s impossible.

So as we spit out the confetti and deal with loved ones, sickness, impossible situations, I think it’s important to realize that the whole facade of New Years is exactly that. A facade. Because any day can be a fresh start. Day 1. Any day can bring about rebirth. Rejuvenation. On any given day, we can choose to start over. Begin.

We put all our excitement into New Years’s only to be frustrated and disappointed when we stumble or fall. We think because we broke our resolutions, we failed. Why bother now?

Because that’s not what it’s about. Yes, we can decide that any day is Day 1 but the fact is we will probably have about twenty Day 1’s in a given year. Because we will stumble. We will fall. We will give in to temptation. It’s not about being perfect from Day 1 on. It’s about learning to get up when we fall after Day 1. It’s about growth and learning from mistakes. We move on when we learn from our messes. We don’t need to go back to Day 1 because we’ve already grown and so we can move into Day 2 or whatever day it is.

A new day or year cannot bring change. It’s only a starting point. So is our attitude. They both open the door to change. There is only one person that can bring about transformation.

It’s not us.

Our church’s mission statement is this: “Our vision at Bethany is to lead people into a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (NLT)

We can hope to change all we like. We can work our tails off to change and we might succeed for a little while but we’ll end up disillusioned and exhausted. I know this all too well. I have to believe real change can only come through a relationship with Jesus because I’ve tried it the other ways. It doesn’t work.

A relationship can make a difference in a person’t life.  Think about teens and their friends. Good or bad influences can alter decisions our kids’ make and how they live their lives.  Think of the Holy Spirit as the ultimate good influence.  Giving His Spirit access to our minds, hearts, attitudes and bodies makes us different. He’s not transforming us into better versions of ourselves, although that’s a bonus.  He is making us more like Christ.  That is the only way transformation can happen.

And it can happen on Day 1 or Day 101.

IMG_1327