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Begin Again |
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An Article by Tom Gilbert — December,
2005
He who was seated on the throne
said, "I am making everything new!" (Revelations 21:5 – NIV)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians
5:17 – NIV)
This is the time of year when people reflect on their lives
and start making resolutions for the New Year. Resolutions are
fashionable, and lets’ face it, they can be useful if
practical. However, so many resolve at the start of the year
to lose weight, eat healthier, do more good things in their
lives and so forth, but then a few months go by and nothing
much has changed.
I think the key may be to use the true spirit of Christmas
as the starting point. Consider how God’s entry into
our world through the humble beginning of the Messiah as a
small and helpless little baby points to the importance of
relying on God to renew us. If God Himself as flesh and blood – as
one of us – had to rely on the help of others and God’s
love and grace transmitted through loving parents, then all
of us surely need it.
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The Christ child grew, of course, and became
an adult man with a life fully lived and a short three year
ministry that gave us some radical and amazing teaching. This
teaching includes instructions to live humbly, love others
(especially the suffering and less fortunate), pursue the path
of peace through non-violence, and to be blessed by recognizing
our shortcomings and knowing that even so God loves us unconditionally.
Jesus shared the Good News with others so that we would know
we have a loving God interested in us. Jesus also tied together
this message of the Father’s love with the importance
of loving ourselves and others. You can’t separate the
parts of the message; they work hand-in-hand.
The solution for each of us is to have the power of God working
in our lives. We can resolve all we want to change our bad
habits and to do things that are good for us and others, but
it is impossible to do it successfully without God’s
help. We can’t do it on our own; the needed power is
not there. How God’s help comes to us when we are willing
to receive it can be wonderfully surprising. We discover that
it comes from other people who are living on the power of God’s
love. This is why community and fellowship are so important.
God works in, with and through us.
Becoming a new creation is another way of saying “Born
again”. But it is not a one-time event. It is a process,
a transformation, from living on our own willpower to relying
on God’s power. When we make resolutions at the beginning
of a year, no matter how genuine our resolve, we must change.
Most of us are resistant to change and we have great difficulty
mustering the willingness. Asking God for the willingness to
change us for the better is an essential part of the surrender
process. Surrender is the beginning of becoming something new.
The old you must die and the new you rises to live in union
with God.
On a practical level it helps when we learn to do simple things
that lead us to this ongoing surrender. Daily prayer and meditation
are important. We all need quiet time when our own concerns
can be laid aside and God can speak to us in the stillness
of our being. This contemplative practice is not enough, however.
We must go forth into action and more action.
The best action we take each day that most helps us in our
process of becoming the new being – the whole and holy
being – is in our involvement with others. How we treat
others, especially those who are hurting and in need of our
help, our forgiveness, our mercy and our love, is the visible
demonstration of who we are. People will know Christians by
their love. For far too long the world has seen so-called Christians
but not acts of love.
No one of us can be perfect in our actions. All of us fall
short of that perfection, but we still strive towards the goal
of perfect love. God’s love is perfect and Jesus Christ
lived that love as a model and example. Yes, He is the savior
because He is the Son of God and the fullness of God. But Jesus
is also fully human and if you look closely at the way Jesus
interacted with others you will see that He didn’t spend
a lot of time condemning sinners. He looked for the willingness
of people to discover and admit their shortcomings, forgave
them and then instructed to “go and sin no more”.
This is the message for us: if we stumble in our resolutions
then we need to recognize it, admit it and begin again. That’s
a new way of thinking and acting and a worthwhile way to start
the year…the day…this moment.
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Scripture taken from the Holy
Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved
throughout the world. Used by permission of International
Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of International
Bible Society. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services
requires the prior written consent of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton,
IL 60189, USA. All rights reserved. |
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