Where do I
begin?
Many of us have
seen those Facebook and Twitter posts stating something in like, “Glad 2013 is
over with, bring on 2014!” Isn’t
it interesting how so many people are “happy” to be done with the year 2013, as
if the year itself had done something hurtful to them. I’m betting MONEY that those same
people, one year from now will be saying the exact same things about 2014.
“Glad I’m finally done with you, lets make it a good one 2015!” The year, the
month, the week, the day itself is not good or bad (although I can definitely
make an argument for Mondays).
What makes a year good or bad are the choices you make. Surely we have all seen enough
inspirational posts on the Internet to know that.
For some reason
or another, people want to continually push the responsibility of hard times
and misfortune onto other things.
In some cases there is legitimacy to that. The world isn’t all SUNSHINE and RAINBOWS; there is a lot of DARK and NASTY stuff out there.
Life hits and it hits hard. Life is never going to start being easy, there is always
going to be something or someone that will cause issues and problems.
Once again,
having a good year comes back to the choices you make. Let’s all be honest, some of the things
that have happened to you are because you made a dumb and stupid decision. I know I have made a ton of stupid
decisions over this past year alone, most of them ended up costing me a good
bit of MONEY because I did not think through what I was doing. I could get mad
or angry with someone else, or even stay angry and mad at myself. That’s not going to help me, it may
make me feel better for a little bit, but that is not going to make things get better. How I respond to any given situation is
going to determine whether I have a good day/week/month/year. I can sit around, mope, and complain
about it but that will not improve upon the situation at all.
In that regards,
and moving along with themes of the New Year, there is the metaphor of a blank
slate, a fresh start, and new beginnings.
I don’t know why, but I always have trouble with the idea of having a
completely new start with no regards to anything that has happened before. You
can’t ignore your story.
Let’s take a
walk down Analogy Avenue. Say your life is a book; your book starts to get
written as soon as your life begins and your book ends when your life ends. If
you are reading this then I am going to say that you have written a good
portion of your story, and you are still writing your storybook everyday you
are alive. You cannot rip out the pages of your book right when you are in the
middle of your story. You will
have a new blank page to start writing on every now and again, but you cannot
rewrite your story. Your book, your story makes you who you are, if you take
that away then you will no longer be you.
(Some people may say that they no longer want to be themselves, and my
heart breaks for you. I do not
know how bad things are, or what you are trying to escape, but I PROMISE that
you will make it through.)
Personally, I
have a really hard time even trying to have a thought process of a fresh start.
Maybe I have a hard time of letting go, maybe my memory is too good, or maybe
I’m too hard on myself. I don’t
know about all of you but it does not take me a long time to think of times
where I have messed up. I mess up
a lot, more times than I care to admit, but goodness gracious I have messed up
a ton. There are so many things
that I will I could go back and do over.
Let me tell you something, if anyone says they don’t have any regrets
then that person is either A: full of crap or B: they are a narcissist. No matter how much I may want to go
back in time and undo some of the stupid, idiotic, and inconsiderate things I
have done, I can’t! Maybe that is
what haunts me the most, in the hours late at night. I can never take back or change the hurtful and selfish words
I have said or things I have done.
That is where
the beauty of God’s grace comes in.
Even though I still have a frustratingly difficult time wrapping my mind
around that all has been forgiven, the blood of Jesus has paid for all of the
wrongs we have done. It covers our
past, it covers our future, and it leaves us spotless. In thinking about regrets and past
mistakes, there are many mornings I look in the mirror and I wish I saw someone
else. God doesn’t do that. He loves you for who you are, mistakes
and all. He loves you and takes
you as his child, sending his own son to die for you. A very radical notion if you spend any time thinking about
it.
