A Fresh Start: Making the Leap Towards a New Life

Fresh start.

Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?

It smells of spring flowers and floral detergent.

And it is something everyone needs occasionally.

In the last month of 2022, my website provider created a mess. The company made three different migrations, each making the website more unreachable.

During Christmas, I monkeyed with it more than I should have. Finally, I had enough.

I started over with a new company.

I lost some data (probably needlessly), but the new is much better than the old.

When I was a boy, my dad patiently took me fishing. However, a boy with a rod and reel is a recipe for a bad day of fishing. I would not let go of the reel button in time, and a mass of filament line would tangle.

My dad always knew what to do. Cut the line and start over.

Isn’t that what you want to say about your life?

When life loses its momentum, life fills with petty annoyances. Habits that leave a hair-in-the-mouth irritation and routines that resemble a child’s fishing reel create a mess.

It’s time for a fresh start.

God believes in fresh starts.

the Bible uses a term called “repentance.” Many see it as a weepy concept. To repent, you must have a Damascus road experience, crawling along with blinded eyes.

Instead, it is something not as dramatic but just as vital.

Repentance is getting fed up with your life, turning around, and going in a different direction.

God uses vivid images of dying, being put into a grave, and returning to a new life. Jesus spoke of being “born again,” a life with the same pink texture as a baby’s.

It doesn’t require a particular date for a fresh start. We mark January 1st, but that is arbitrary. You can make a fresh start on your birthday, the beginning of a school term, or some whimsical date like August 14th.

The date is less significant than the decision and action that follows.

What does it take for a fresh start?

We despise change. When the grocery store rearranges its shelves (which seems to be a weekly pattern), we grumble, searching for green beans.

Finally,  enough is enough. We resist life’s doldrums only so long. But people change when their current situation pesters them enough.

What are you doing now that contributes to your misery?

For repentance to happen, you must take a different road. What do you want your life to reflect?

Then comes the hard part, cutting ties with what was to go to what could be. Are you willing to enter the unknown to get what you truly want?

I think of Paul. His life was working on the outside. He was on the fast track to the top of his profession. Yet, life gnawed at him. He lived in a minor key, full of dissonance and discord. Jesus said he was “kicking against the goads.”

Then came the vision, the decision, and the new direction. It wasn’t a new year but a new life.

So as the expression goes, “if the horse is dead, it is time to dismount.”

Does that describe you? Then, it’s time for a fresh start.

The only issue is whether you are willing to take the step.