A New Thing: Part 1

Gentle Reader,

Do not remember the former things
    or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.

– Isaiah 43:18-19 (NRSV)

I don’t make new year’s resolutions. I’m sure they work for some people. Me, well, I would just beat myself up if I resolved to go to the gym every day and then missed a session. I already put enough pressure on myself to do the right thing always. I don’t need more of the same.

What I do need is more God, more holy grace and love, and so what I have done for the last few years is choose a “theme verse.” Something that I come back to and chew on as the days turn to weeks turn to months. But as December wound down, nothing jumped out at me. I didn’t have a sense of what God wanted me to focus on.

I am not a last-minute kind of person, and God isn’t a last-minute kind of God. God is, instead, the God of the right time. I lay in bed on December 31, two anxious dogs curled up by my head because our neighbors so kindly share their fireworks with us, scrolling through Instagram as you do. It was then that the Isaiah passage above caught my attention.

The first half of 2023 was about space. Space to breathe, space to disconnect, space to explore. There were deep wounds that needed tending. The second half of 2023 was about just getting through one day at a time. One foot in front of the other. I know that God was present in both halves. I know that neither myself nor my family would have made it through without the gracious and strengthening presence of the Savior.

Now, in 2024, it’s about moving forward. Nobody can escape the past, but nobody has to be stuck in it. Again the grace and strength of the Savior is vital. Moving forward, letting go, refusing to be shackled to bitterness or the dead weight of what can’t be changed – only Christ can give you what you need for that journey. Only Christ can open your eyes to see the new thing that he is doing.

I don’t know about you, but I want to see the new thing. I want to embrace it. I want to enjoy it. I want to be part of it.

So we launch the year here in this space with a multi-week meditation upon these verses. I say “multi-week” because I don’t know how long this will be. I’m not interested in rushing. It’s worth the process and the time to discover the life-transforming and enriching truths that God has for us in these words. And we need to be transformed. We need to become more and more Christlike each day. It’s no secret that we live in an era of global unrest and upheaval. Making our way through that with integrity and peace instead of giving way to rage or fear will be a testament to the reality of Jesus. That’s a testament the world around us needs to see.

What if that is the new thing this year? What if we really can be the people that God intends for us to be?

Won’t that be something.

GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,

MARIE

Image Courtesy of Jeremy Bishop

P.S. – I will occasionally share some of my favorite songs over the next year. This one consistently lifts my spirits.