New Beginnings

There's an old Native American proverb that says, "No river can return to its source, yet all rivers must have a beginning." There's no going back; there's only going forward.

We stand at the threshold of a New Year. Of course, when the ball drops in Times Square tonight and people start shouting and kissing, nothing really magical has happened. The clock will have merely ticked forward one more second. The transition to a new calendar date based on some man-made organizational model doesn't really bring about a new beginning.

And yet we celebrate the opportunity to start afresh anyways. Millions of people will make resolutions about how the next 12 months will be different from what has come before. Television ads will be dominated by various diet programs at the very same time many guys will be huddled on the couch with nachos and beer watching the ball games. Habits will be broken, followed by resolutions begin broken and habits being resumed.

Still the river rushes forward from here, and it's as good a time as any to lay down a milestone and mark the opportunity for a new beginning. Personally, I'm excited about what the New Year holds in store for me personally, for my family, for our church, and for our nation.

Personally, I've got some goals I'm going to work on this next year -- from getting outside more and enjoying more physical activity to stretching myself artistically to trying to learn a new instrument. Somewhere lurking in the recesses of my dreams is this hunger to write a book (no, I'm not discussing the idea publically yet), and perhaps this will be the year I get started.

For our family, a lot will change this year. Ben is heading off to Virginia Tech in the fall, and I'm SO excited to see what God has in store for him! Of course, that will leave me in a house full of girls, so I'm expecting to be stretched in unexpected ways. I'm also expecting a desire to seek out regular settings for testosterone-filled gatherings of guys.

Our church is destined for some big changes. God continues to bless us with new families as we share life's adventure together. I have this overwhelming sense that God has something unique in store for us; there's something very special about Hope, and it feels like God is taking us in a unique direction when it comes to impacting our community with his love and grace in practical ways.

This next month, our nation will have a new President -- one who has promised wide-scale change. He will certainly need our prayers as he embraces a seemingly impossible task.

Yet with all the changes taking place and new beginnings being launched, one thing remains absolutely constant: the sovereign Lord of the universes loves us beyond description. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that even as we fall asleep sometime after welcoming in the New Year, God remains awake and prepares new blessings for us in the coming day (Lamentations 3:23).

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not.
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.