Here I am, sitting at my freshly organized desk in my dorm room at the beginning of a brand new semester. This may seem insignificant to some, but to others starting something new means everything. I am definitely one of the latter.
This past year and a half has not necessarily been the easiest for me and I’m sure that I’m not the only one. From transitioning to university life to changing my major several different times and losing some of my financial aid in the process, this past year and a half has truly been a roller coaster ride that I was expecting to be a smooth ride across a pond.
The unexpected kinks in my own carefully thought-out plans, however, are what give me the appreciation I have of the beginning of this new semester. My past experiences have taught me to expect the unexpected and reach out for it with open arms. All of the mistakes that I made before don’t matter anymore. I’m free to let go of them and leave them in the past because I have been given a clean slate; a brand new shot at something that means so much to me.
Something else that I’ve learned is that newness and fresh starts don’t only apply to grading periods. There are opportunities to start fresh all around you, every day. Every decision you are faced with is a new opportunity to change your path and start the course of who you are to become in the future afresh. Every new day is brand new for you to decide what to do with it. Will you continue your old habits? Will you do the same thing that you did yesterday?
The fact that we get so many chances as people to make new decisions is a true testament to how giving God is. It even says in the Bible that God’s love is made new for us every single day. Every day. That doesn’t mean that because yesterday you stole that candy bar from 7-11 that God will love you less today. No, it means that God loves you just the same as if you had never sinned against Him. He will never love you less, and he could never love you more than He loves you right now.
He loves us so much that He gives us the choice to be new with every decision we are presented with. He gives us new days, new jobs, new seasons, new friends, new places to call home, new jobs, new schools and even new thoughts and ideas so that we might take that gift of newness and draw closer to Him. Newness is one of the greatest gifts that God could ever give us as fallen, broken people.
If you take a moment to think about what decisions you’ve made recently and what opportunities of newness you have been given, you will realize just how often you receive that gift. If every opportunity presents itself as a chance to be and do something new, why wouldn’t you choose the gift of newness?
