Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A Fresh Start? No Thanks....How About A Better Tomorrow, Instead?


Do We Really Get A Fresh Start?

I'm sitting on the couch, reflecting on the day. A little too much food, a little too much drink, a little too much football. On and on and on it goes. As day's go, January 1st is really no different than most any other winter day. Typically, it's cold. The daylight hours are short. But even so, there is a resolve. A hint of past success and past failure. I'm not one to have resolutions or to have a word for the year. Generally, because I don't believe there is enough conviction in those things to bring about change.

Change comes from within. Change is built on the past. Change is a departure from what has been done before right now. So, with that thought I am not sure that we get a fresh start. 

We can resolve to be healthier, to be more fit, to be more successful, more content, more of everything. What about about being less? What if to truly change, we need to be less in "control", less in our own way.

I am generally optimistic about the future. I know there are things I could have done better last year, but that is in the past. I can not change what is in the past. It is written and it is gone. Many of my struggles are with letting go of the past. I am typically my own harshest critic. I can forgive my wife, I can forgive my kids. I can forgive many people. Seldom do I easily forgive myself.



“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” 

What do I hope for 2014? 

I hope that I can have the strength to let myself make mistakes and to give myself the grace that God offers, to not hold onto those mistakes. I have too many plans for a new year to hang on to the baggage.

Fresh start? No, not really. We are made from our past, but we are not defined by it. My wish for myself and for you: is that you are better today than you were yesterday, and that you are better tomorrow than you are today. Life is in the trying