Tuesday, September 6, 2011

A New Season

The day after Labor Day is one of my most favorite days of the year.  It always has felt like a day of crossing over the line  into a new season when the first day of school begins for students in our area, when new pencils, notebooks, and textbooks are issued for a new school year, when a few leaves on the trees begin to change colors, when we exchange summer activities for the things of fall.  When there's a re-energizing change of routine in the day, we've experienced a gift of something new.

Though we might not always see it, something is always being made new through the power and presence of God.  While we might feel we're stuck or at a dead-end, God uses it as a catalyst to transform, making all things new, creating opportunities for a new beginning, a new day, and a new season of life.  The thing is . . . it's our choice  . . . to live the day, or even the moment, receiving the fresh and new gift of God, re-energized and impassioned for life.  There's often more time spent in waiting for something different, waiting for something to change, waiting for something more than in the moment, waiting to enjoy what life holds for the day than in the time we take to experience God's gift of a new work.
We are made to experience the liberating and redeeming power of God when something is made new.  
Consider. 
But forget all that—
      it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
 For I am about to do something new.
      See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
   I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
      I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19, NLT).

Isaiah 43 makes it clear to focus on the new thing God is doing, to be willing to cross over the line from what has been to a new beginning.  It's not always easy to take the step when we're in the wilderness and wasteland in some or all of life.  But.  The key is to let it go, to focus on what God is doing, to see through faith that God is making a way through the wilderness and dry wasteland of life.
And, yes, it's easy to focus on the things which should've, would've, and could've been different . . .  if, only . . . however, we miss the mysterious and miraculous new work of God when we look at the stuff rather than turn our full attention on the Divine. 
Get ready for a new season of miracles.
Step in; cross over the line from what has been to the new work of God.
See what God is doing.
Trust God to make all things new, providing a way even in the wilderness and wasteland of life.
Celebrate the gift of God's work in your life as a new season.

Learning to Kickstart the day seeing the gift of a new season,
Kerrie

(written by Kerrie Carlisle Palmer © 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)