Embracing New Beginnings in the New Year
Like a fresh snow changes the look and feel of your backyard, a New Year is a chance for a new beginning. We're almost through January, but it's not too late to start. Embrace this new beginning!
Before I begin this post, I want to make a quick note: In the last few weeks, I experimented with the content available to subscribers with an “upgraded” subscription versus free subscribers. This week, I listened to a year-end wrap-up podcast by The Bible Project. They shared their vision of making their materials available to anyone via crowdfunding. This reminded me of my original plan to provide all my content free to everyone; those who paid did so to support my ministry and help people know God.
I apologize, and I’ve reversed those changes.
Your paid subscription is, first and foremost, an encouragement to me. In the long term, it will allow me to expand with more upgraded content. I am honestly amazed that 21 of you do this for me. Thank you.
I have a cousin who is a student at Florida State University. She just celebrated the canceling of classes due to snow. Florida was shut down for snow!
Snow was common growing up in Kansas, but the Florida closings and our significant snowfall a few weeks ago reminded me of one particular snowstorm as a child. I sledded, built snow forts, and engaged in snowball fights with my friends until dark. We drifted off to our homes, but I wasn’t quite ready to go inside. As the snow continued falling around me, I played with the snow in my backyard. I was playing with the snow, but really, I was enjoying the stillness around me.
Fresh snow is magical. The world's noise fades away, and the landscape is blanketed in white. It’s as if the world has been made new.
A God of New Beginnings
A scripture etched into my mind was written by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. The Babylonian empire overran Jerusalem, his hometown, and God's chosen city. Jeremiah wrote about his disappointment in a short book of poetry.
In his sorrow, he reminded himself that God is faithful:
“God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He’s all I’ve got left.”
-Lamentations 3:22-24 MSG (emphasis mine)
Every day is new, just like a snowfall makes my backyard look like a new world. In his faithfulness, God will make all things new.
Creation and Re-Creation
We are familiar with the God of creation. You probably know of the creation narrative even if you aren’t a Bible person. However, God is a God not just of creation but re-creation. It is his nature.
In the creation account found in Genesis, we see how God creates light, land, and trees out of nothing. He goes on to design birds, animals, and humanity. In this creation, we see the nature of re-creation within God. He made plants and trees to be seed-bearing…to re-create. He commanded humanity to “be fruitful and multiply”— to re-create.
We were designed in God’s image. We are to be like God, so if we are to create and re-create, then God himself creates and re-creates.
The desire for a new beginning is built within the heart of mankind. It’s why we so often embrace the New Year. It’s the backyard of fresh fallen snow. It’s the newly created mercy from God.
I want to encourage you today. If you read this as it is released today, it is the fourth Friday of January. A lie we tell ourselves (or hear from the enemy of our souls) is that it is too late. We missed our window. What was initially freshly fallen snow is now muddy, trampled slush.
That is a lie.
God wants to use 2025 as a new beginning for you, your family, your business/job, your finances, and your relationships. He wants to re-create your world.
Quarterly Meet-ups
I want to make this possible for you. The best way I’ve found to create and re-create is the Word of the Year project, and an essential factor is accountability.
I want you and this community to learn from one another. Let’s hold each other accountable for learning and growing from our Words of the Year.
Our first gathering will be Thursday, January 30, at 7PM (Central). I will send out the login information on Thursday morning.
It will be virtual so that anyone can attend. The meeting will last no longer than one hour. I will teach a few of the principles I’ve shared on this blog and share a few new anecdotes. Then, I will open it up for you to share your Word and what you hope to learn on your journey and ask questions.
