Labor Day. The mile marker for the end of summer fun! This week starts the new school year for our local public school students. This week marks the first meaningful classes for our college students who have been at it for only a week or so, and this week marks a new season of life for the rest of us. New seasons of life aren't always calendar related, sometimes it's a new job, a new baby, a new home, a new diagnosis, or a new "normal" without a loved one.
Many times we look at new seasons of life and assume we can reboot and begin again. In fact, we tell ourselves that this season will be totally different and like nothing we have ever experienced before. However, There really isn't ever really a fresh beginning. Everything we experience follows closely on the heels of something preceding it, and everything we are living right now will affect what comes after. How then should we live? What then should the church do?
Winston Churchill once said "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
There Are No Fresh Starts
The things we pursue must be in light of what has gone before. There are things that change, and things that haven't. We must acknowledge and register the fact that there is pain, there have been trials, but God has remained constant.
There Are No Shortcuts
We live in a society and a culture that rewards innovation, encourages idea generation, and pursues quick success. However, what isn't publicized is the rapid weight gain after a speedy weight loss, a bankrupt company after an early market rise, or a mental breakdown after a rise to fame. The things we see in Scripture that last have deep roots and a long maturation process.
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
There Is, however, a Fresh Perspective
I am learning that when we take what we have experienced, when we take what our church heritage has taught us, and we merge it with a new angle of view, we will find solutions and new pursuits that give God the greatest glory. He has in fact seen it all, and yet we find he made all things new. This is the perspective we live by. This is what motivates us to carry on.
“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.” Psalm 37:5
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