The NEWEST Year

*{This post originally appeared over at Unforced Rhythms  on 12/31/13} 

Everyone enjoys a new start.  I don’t need to tell you that it’s New Year’s Day; and the interwebs are a-buzz with resolutions, reflections, suggestions, plans and lots and lots of hope.  So many chirps, statuses, and instapics waxing poetic on a variation of

                This is the year I ___{fill in the blank}_______.

I am not immune to this excitement.  I refuse to act as if I have nothing in me that needs changing.  And yes, I am pinning quite a few expectations on the first day of 2014. 

While it is fun (and useful, according to “the experts”) to set a date on which you plan initiate change, I am reminded that for those made alive in Christ, this is the reality of every day.  And for those who are not, it is the offer of every, single, breath-drawing day.

Followers, you are a new creation in Christ.  The old has gone and the new is made alive in you -- through the glory of God, the resurrection of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  God’s mercies are new with every dawn.  You have living in you the power of the God of the universe; and you are given the grace to shake off that which fetters your soul.  To unhook the moorings that holds you back from being the best, most beautiful, most glorifying version of you.  I pray that 2014 is the year that we, each, can embrace and embody this truth. 

Fellow sojourners, you are offered, every moment of your beautiful and precious life, the chance to be made new.  To be filled with hope and promise and possibility and change.  To be made alive so that even death has no hold over you.  To let go of the worst parts of your past, and to grab hold of the best parts of who you are and who you might be.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the grace and glory of Almighty God.  If you would only believe and accept this gift of sacrifice.        

      

Dearest reader, you have the chance to live as if every day is 

                New Year’s Day. 

May you take this opportunity, so freely and lovingly given, to be whom you were created to be.  For the glory of the Father, the witness of the Son, and the honor of the Holy Spirit.

May 2014 be your NEWEST year yet.