As I write this we’re standing on the cusp of a brand new year. The New Year’s celebration is always symbolic of new beginnings. The old year is over, and we’re ready to start fresh. We also had a new moon a couple of days ago. The ancients viewed the time of the new moon as an opportunity for fresh beginnings. It was a chance to start a new work, new beginnings.
A new year. This is your time to start fresh, to start over. What would you like to change? That’s the whole idea behind New Year’s resolutions, right? Decide what it is you’d like to see happen in your life. This is your chance for a “do over.” Isaiah 42:9 says, “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and I now declare new things…” Speak those things that you’d like for your life. Don’t speak of the things you don’t want. Focus on your desires and your goals. Pay no heed to any obstacles; they’re only obstacles if you allow them to be. Instead, turn them into stepping stones to take you to a higher level.
Three years ago a friend of mine was the victim of a homicide. His funeral service was on New Year’s Day. There’s a great metaphorical lesson to be learned through my friend’s death. We buried his body because it didn’t serve him any longer…and New Year’s is a great time to lay to rest all the things that don’t serve us any longer, and to start anew.
In the late 1950s, a man named Charles Dederich founded Synanon, a self-help community for drug abusers and alcoholics. A saying attributed to Dederich was very popular in the Sixties: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” In the book of Revelation, the author, John of Patmos, has a vision in which he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth. He quotes God as saying in the vision, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5). This is something you can have for yourself. Through faith, allow God Within to make all things new for your life. Let the old things pass away. Bury them; they don’t serve you any longer. Rise up and walk in the newness of life. 2016 is over. 2017 is just beginning. It’s a new year. It’s the first day of the rest of your life. How that life turns out is up to you. Now is your chance to start over. Happy New Year!
Rev. Jeff Radcliff 