Is It Time for a Clean Slate?

Everyone needs a clean slate.

A newborn has no experiences, good or bad. He doesn’t know joy but neither does he experience disappointment. Those marks accumulate over time.

As life’s river flows, we pick up the flotsam and jetsam of hurts, slights, mistakes, and regrets.

It resembles a classroom chalkboard, full of marks and words. More and more fill the space until there is no longer any place for something new. Then, with an eraser, we wipe them away and the slate is clean again.

We need a clean slate.

Our calendar presents moments of clean slates. Some use birthdays, anniversaries, or (if you have school children) the first day of school. Those are natural “start over” points.

But none compare to New Year’s Day. We invest in something akin to alchemy to turn lead habits into gold. With a new year, we will fit in clothes from high school, muscle up, devour libraries, and exude joy.

Yet, we wasted the clean slate by dreaming, not confronting life.

The divine dictionary contains clean-slate ideas–repentance, new birth, resurrection, and transformation. They all speak of stopping, turning around, and going in a different direction.

So, how can you start this week with a clean slate?

Forgive

Our souls collect grievances.

Others hurt us and we hurt ourselves. We secretly accuse others of sins they did not commit except in our minds. Others are real. They sting and leave a scar.

What sticks in your craw and raises your blood pressure? Did someone miss a birthday? Say a stray word that left its imprint? Betray you? Not love you as you wanted to be loved?

Look in the mirror as well. When have you been harsh to yourself, expecting more than you could give? When did you excuse in yourself the inexcusable? When did you let yourself down?

The word “forgive” is a Greek word that means “let go.” Take time to acknowledge hurts and then, open your spiritual palm and let it fall free from your life.

Forgiveness is hard but necessary.

Remember

While you are letting go of the past, hold to some of it. Remember the source of your blessings.

Who has helped you this past year? Influenced you? Kept you going when you wanted to quit?

What has God done for you this year?

In 1 Samuel 7, Samuel leads the people against their enemies, the Philistines. The Philistines attacked but something happened.

“As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.” (1 Samuel 7:10, ESV)

The Lord saved Israel.

Samuel responds by setting this moment in stone. He raises a memorial stone. He named it Ebenezer, a Hebrew term meaning”Stone of Help.”

All need an Ebenezer in their lives, a place where they solidify the blessings of God in their lives.

So, look back and ask, “How did the Lord help me in 2024?” No one gets to this moment on their own.

What’s your Ebenezer?

Commit

But life is not a nostalgia show of the “greatest acts of the past.”

Soren Kirkegaard observed, “Life is understood backward, but must be lived forwards.”

Instead of a list of meaningless resolutions (lies we tell ourselves), tackle another question.

What can I do to make a better world this year?

How can you improve your health so you can serve better? Who can you teach? Encourage?

New Year’s resolutions tend to be selfish. If you better yourself, how can you make others better?

Joy doesn’t come from having more things, but from sharing what you have with others. Time spent with the lonely compounds. It’s worth more than the 10 pounds of weight you won’t lose.

Help others. Bear one another’s burdens. God works through his people, so become his hands and feet this year.

Remember that, if the Lord wills, you will stand here 365 days from now a year older. But will you have to be a year better? That is up to you.