Beginnings

Beginnings are such painful things. When we begin the new year we are reminded of our failed resolutions from last year. When we begin a new job there may be a great deal of satisfaction and excitement, but, mixed with that, there is a leaving behind of the old job, maybe even moving to an entirely different city.
The thrill of beginning to drive the car wore off soon after it also became our responsibility to fuel the car, insure the car, and maintain the car!
Beginnings are seldom simply adding something to life. They signify the completion, fulfillment, or ending of one life stage and the start of something different or new, something that represents a change over what was in it’s place before.
When it comes to marriage, I tell couples coming for their pre-marital counseling sessions that they are beginning a new and radically different relationship, even those who have lived together for an extended period of time. They are giving something up and starting something new. They will have to get acquainted all over again in this new relationship.
Matthew 4:17 says, From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Two things are new here. The first is that Jesus began a public ministry. He put aside any hope of a private life and took up the role of Messiah and Savior.
The second is more exciting than the first, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This whole idea of repentance is something of a new beginning for us as people of God. We are called to leave behind an old way of life and to take up a new way of life. This is an old way of life that many of us had grown quite accustomed to living. It won’t be easy to just lay it down and walk away. We may have to find new friends who will assist and encourage us on our new journey of becoming. That will be hard. We will adopt new and different priorities. We will, hopefully, purge ourselves of behaviors not in keeping with our new way of life and build in behaviors that reinforce the new life path we are travelling.

What are the results of this new thing Jesus began and continues to this day? Verse 24 of that same chapter in Matthew tells us that people talked. They told other people. Good News that is REALLY good can’t be kept a secret. It bursts forth from our own lives and begins to change the lives of this around us. May our beginning, begin something in the lives of the people we meet! Amen.
Pastor Craig