New Year, new me, new you?

It’s 6:45 a.m. on January 1, 2010. I am in the mountains of Virginia. The sky is slowly brightening in the east as the sun begins to climb up into the sky.

It is the first day of the new year of a new decade. Last night the door closed on 2009 and it was done, over. The past 10 years have been full of contrast, dark and light, good and bad, positive and negative. I am amazed at how my view of all that has happened to me, my family and friends has changed in the last 10 years. Ten years ago I was celebrating the year 2000 in Cordova, Tennessee with DD’s father. I had no idea what changes were about to occur in my life and had I even been given a hint at what I would go through I probably would have run away because I know, looking back on this year and the last 10, God was there through it all.

God and I had an on and off relationship, mostly off, for the majority of my life. God to me was more like a policeman with mystical powers, someone you called on when you needed help but otherwise someone you avoided because He was just waiting to reprimand, punish and condemn.

I did view God, for a long time, like a highway patrolman out on the road. I can be driving on the interstate, cruise set at the speed limit (okay, maybe one or two over), my seatbelt on, my cell phone off (no texting while driving) and both hands on the wheel, minding my own business, and I see a highway patrolman in my rearview mirror. I start getting nervous, my mind rushing to make sure, do I have my registration, is my inspection up to date, do I have a tail-light out, etc. and I become hyper vigilant about my driving. I haven’t done anything wrong but just because an authority figure, someone who can pass judgment on my actions might be scrutinizing my actions, I start sweating. I know that I am not the only one who does this because how many times have I been traveling on the road and watch every car in front of me tap the brakes when they see a patrol car in the median of the highway. How many of us wonder if we should pass a cop if he is traveling at or below the posted speed limit? Am I the only one who hums the theme from Jaws every time I see a highway patrol car? Da dum, da dum, da dum. (Okay, maybe that is just me, but I still think they look like sharks).

Wow, this post sure didn’t go where I thought it was going to go. Very much like most of my life. I start out going in one direction and wind up somewhere completely different. But while that used to worry me now it really excites me because I realize I am no longer in control of it.

I have also realized that God is nothing like I perceived Him and when my perception of God changed my relationship with God changed.

The last 10 years have been hard in many ways and as I sit here this morning reflecting on all the ways God showed up when I didn’t even want Him around, I cannot fathom what He is going to do now that I am striving to walk with Him and not run away from Him.

17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:17-21

The sun is penetrating through the darkness, the clouds are breaking up and the night is giving way to the morning. I start hearing the song from Cats playing in my head, Memories (I love musicals).

“Daylight I must wait for the sunrise

I must think of a new life

And I musn't give in

When the dawn comes

Tonight will be a memory too

And a new day will begin”

It is a new day on the new year of a new decade. I don’t know what today will bring, or tomorrow, this year, or 10 years from now, but I have a feeling that it is going to be amazing. Memories are wonderful and should be cherished, but don’t get so caught up in the past that you miss out on the new day, the sunrise, and the hope and dreams of the future. If you are reading this, then you are breathing and alive, if you are breathing and alive, then God still has a purpose for your life.

Happy New Year and happy new life. A life that can be filled with joy, happiness, laughter and promise. God wants that for all of His children.  

11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.-Jeremiah 29:11

May your New Year's resolution be one that you keep long past January 15th and that is to grab tight to the hand of your heavenly Father and walk with Him through the rest of your life. That is my prayer for you.