Just Another Lap?

            As much as we like to think that we are beginning a new year, we really are not.  There isn’t anything “new” about it.  Physically, the earth is merely back at the same place it was 365 + days ago.  We are simply starting another lap around the sun.  Beginning another lap does not make something any newer than it makes a new race for every racecar driver that starts another trip around their track.  The Indianapolis 500 is one race with 500 laps, not 500 races of one lap.  Technically we are starting over, not starting anew.

            In order for something to be new, it must either have just come into existence or have undergone a change in essence.  Since we are already in existence, our only option for becoming new necessitates change.  Beginning each year we make our assessments regarding what needs to be changed, and then commit to bring about the improvement. Our health clubs bristle with activity as people pursue their slimmer, trimmer existence.  Bookstores sell their annual quota of self-help guides on any number of topics.  Promises are made and rules are changed all in the zeal of renewal.  However, we soon discover there is really nothing new about this “new year”.  The habits that caused us to over eat last year are still present this year.  The bad attitudes we held before continue to influence our life. Our tendency to overspend keeps us just as much in debt as before.  Moving a few more thousand miles through space has not really changed us that much.

Starting over does not make one new.  Newness requires an inward change.  Our problem is we cannot simply will an inner change.  We can only develop it through outward means.  Behavioral psychologists remind us that for any change to become lasting, it must be developed through new activities repeated over a long period of time.  Our challenge is we seldom remain committed to these behaviors long enough for them to make a difference.  Thus we spin off on our next orbit through space more frustrated than renewed.

Change is different with God.  He changes us inwardly without the need of long-term outward influences.  God’s change works exactly opposite from that of mankind.  Where we must work on the outside to change within, God works on the inside, which changes us without.  For mankind, outward change is the means of inward renewal.  With God, outward change is the evidence of inward renewal. God makes us new in ways we cannot.  This is His promise.  If anyone is in Christ, they are a new person.  Old things have passed away, all things become new.

  As we consider the changes we would like to experience during this year’s trip around the sun, why not allow God to enable them by changing you from within?  You will still need to go to the gym, quit your growling around and cut back on spending.  But your ability to do so will be improved because of what you have allowed God to do within you, making you genuinely new.

Pastor Mark