Off to a Good Start
Off to a Good Start by Rev. L. John Gable
January 1, 2023
Perhaps you’ve seen, or even prayed, this prayer for yourself.
“Dear God, so far today I’ve done alright. I haven’t gossiped. I haven’t lost my temper. I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, unpleasant, selfish or over-indulgent, and I am very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed; and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot more help. Amen.”
That’s kind of how we feel on this first day of the New Year, isn’t it? So far we’ve probably done alright. We feel like we are off to a pretty good start, but experience tells us that likely won’t last. The pages of our calendars tend not to stay clean for very long and past experience tells us it won’t be long before we start to exhibit some form of greediness, grumpiness, unpleasantness, selfishness or over-indulgence.
Yet each year the New Year becomes something of a line in the sand for us, a marking point, a line of delineation which allows us to separate our past from our future, who we were from who we intend to be; it offers us a chance to start over again. It gives us a “do over.”
The poet E. James writes,
The old year dies
And with it hopes
Left behind, unmet;
And yet, new hopes born,
As time begins again,
Are stacked up and stored,
The fuel of our mem’ry.
The fading bells of this year
Blend with the sharp sound of the next
And time begins again.”
Psalm 51 was King David’s “line in the sand” which separated his past from his future. It was his confession of brokenness and sin in which he pours out his heart to God, asking, pleading for forgiveness and a chance to start over again. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.” David seems to be praying the prayer we pray. He puts into words the thoughts of our hearts. His desire is our desire as we begin this new day and this New Year. He cries out for God’s help and deliverance, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.”
The Psalmist touches on the painful reality of our lives and the essential ingredient of our right relationship with God. As people of faith we must acknowledge and confess the reality of our brokenness and sin and our complete and utter reliance on the gracious mercy of our God who is both holy and loving. We must become versed in the language of confession if we want to experience the cleansing spirit of God’s forgiveness.
I clearly remember being at the YMCA during my lunch break on the first Monday of the New Year a number of years ago. I remember it was that day because in the first week of the New Year the gym is always crowded with everyone trying to make good on their New Year’s resolutions.
The men’s locker room was crowded with unfamiliar faces and I was shoulder to shoulder with a middle-aged man as we were both trying to change back into our street clothes in a very limited amount of space.
We fell into conversation about whatever when I asked him what he did for a living. He told me he was a salesman, then asked me the same. I told him I am a pastor and he stopped, stared at me and said, “It is no coincidence then that we were put together today. Yesterday I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ.”
He went on to explain that he had long been active in his church, teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, attending worship every Sunday, doing all the things he thought he was supposed to do, but then he said, “But I realized I wasn’t being all that God intends me to be. I wasn’t letting my light shine very brightly. So I recommitted my life to Him and asked Him to let His light shine through me more brightly.”
I left the Y that day uplifted and recommitted myself. I thought, that man is off to a good start on this new year, and I want to be, as well.
I invite you today to reflect and consider for yourself if you think you are being all that God intends you to be? I don’t know what, if any, New Year’s resolutions you have made for yourself, but are you committed to letting God’s light shine more brightly through you this year? I wonder with you what we might need to do to allow that to happen at home, at the office, in the community, in this church? What kind of grime and dust and dirt do we need to have cleansed out of our lives, our hearts, our minds in order for God’s light to shine more brightly in us and through us? What kinds of sins and transgressions do we need to confess in order to experience anew God’s Spirit of forgiveness in our hearts? What kinds of commitments and recommitments do we need to make today to get us off to a good start in this New Year?
If you are looking for some guidance for your New Year’s resolutions you might consider Paul’s encouragement to the young believers in Philippi. He writes, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Let this be our commitment and resolve. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let every New Year find you a better man (woman, person).” Let this be our commitment and resolve as we enter this New Year. It is never too late and today would be as good a day as any to draw that line in the sand between past and present and future.
St. Augustine, the great church father, had a past. Prior to his conversion he was a notorious playboy and partier. However, after his encounter with Christ all of that changed. One day, after his conversion, he was walking down the street and saw coming toward him one of his former girlfriends, so he quickly crossed to the other side of the street. She saw him and tried to get his attention, but he refused to acknowledge her. Finally she called out, “Augustine, Augustine, it is I!” He replied, “Yes, Madame, I know, but it is not I!” Though he looked the same on the outside, on the inside he had undergone an extreme makeover because of his new relationship with Jesus Christ. I dare say, we want the same for ourselves. We want those kinds of changes, so we make resolutions and commitments and promises in an effort to improve ourselves.
Yet we also know ourselves too well, don’t we? We know how poorly we have faired with the commitments and resolutions and promises we have made in the past. We know how feeble our attempts are at self-improvement. We know ourselves too well to think that our resolve alone will make us into better people. So, we finally come to the realization that we need something more to aid us. We need Someone more to empower and sustain us.
Just as King David prayed “create a new heart in me, O God”, so we must pray the same. Just as Mary prayed, “Lord, let it be with me according to Your word”, so we must pray that our hearts may be opened and that we too might become a “Bethlehem” where God’s Spirit is welcomed anew and born again within us. The changes we desire will not simply come as a result of our wanting them or wishing them or even our willing them. No, we need something more that good resolve and better intentions. We need rebirth such as is offered to us by the Child born in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord. It is by our openness to the indwelling of His Holy Spirit that our hearts are cleansed and we are changed, from the inside out.
In this rebirth we become the new creation God desires us to be and with God’s help we are off to a good start as we recommit ourselves to letting His light shine more brightly through us in this day and throughout the New Year.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN