It’s a brand new year and a brand new decade. Doesn’t seem that long ago that we began a brand new century, nervously watching lest our world fall apart due to short-sighted programming code for dates. In the last 10 years we survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a major recession, presidential campaigns, war, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, and scores of personal tragedies, like broken marriages, the death of a loved one, loss of a job, that plague the human race every day.
It is a time when many who celebrate the calendar change make resolutions to be thinner or smarter, to get more organized, to be less stressed, to save money, to drink less, to give more, and so on. New Year’s resolutions fail more than they succeed. But people will try again next year. On 12/31/10 at 11:59 p.m., they’ll be firmly committed to fresh start with a brand new year.
Luckily, as a Christian, I know that I can have a fresh start every single day. Each morning when I wake up, it is a new chance to be better than I was the day before. I can be a bigger person today. I can reunite with a lost friend. I can reconcile with a brother. I can give more. I can worry less. And if at the end of the day I find that today has not turned out to be my best day yet -- if I have fallen on my face again – if I have broken my resolutions before my morning coffee got cold -- I can start again tomorrow.
If I sin today, forgiveness awaits. If I accept it, I start with a fresh slate. I don’t even have to wait for tomorrow. Because God’ forgiveness is always there for me, I can confess my sin, repent, and start fresh with God at any moment, completely untainted by the failure of the moment before.
Psalm 51, especially verses 7-13, show the path of a sinner, through repentance to restoration – renewed to snow white purity by the forgiveness of God and reconciliation by the blood of Jesus – right then and there. Because God renews us, WE are new every day. Praise God that each day is a new opportunity in Him.
With His forgiveness and the support of the Holy Spirit within us, let’s start each day with new resolve and celebrate it as a fresh, new start to a better tomorrow. Nah, don’t wait for the new day, start each moment new in Him.
With that thought in mind, I say, Happy New Minute AND Happy New You!
Love, Nancy
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