A Fresh Start (Part One)

A FRESH START (part one)

We can need a fresh start for many reasons- a bad relationship, financial debt, addiction, trouble with the law, job loss or problems at work; you name it. So, we decide to make a fresh start. We move away, we change jobs, we get involved with new people, we make changes so we don't make the same mistakes again, etc. A fresh start feels good and can make all the difference in the world. Let's look at the importance of having a fresh start.

1) A fresh start isn't easy...but it is necessary.

Maybe you're someone who has lived a tough life. You've gone your own way and have tried to find what made you feel whole. Maybe you've turned to various things to make you happy but they haven't. So, after years of pain, suffering and misery you're feeling pretty discouraged.

You're wondering if your life will ever get better. Perhaps you feel like you're damaged goods. You've done a lot of harm to yourself and wonder if there's any real hope for you. Can you escape this rut? Can you climb out of this dungeon of despair? You want a fresh start but is it too late?

No one is beyond repair in the hands of the master. "A sculptor had ruined a huge piece of beautiful marble. It was left in the courtyard of the cathedral in Florence, Italy, for almost a hundred years. Artisans thought it was beyond repair. But in 1505, a young sculptor by the name of Michelangelo was asked if he thought anything could be done with it.

He measured the block and carefully noted the imperfections caused by the bungling workman of an earlier day. To his mind came the image of the young shepherd boy David. He carefully made a sketch of that biblical character as he envisioned him.

For 3 years he worked steadily, his chisel skillfully shaping the marble. Finally, when one of his students was allowed to view the towering figure, 18 feet high and weighing 9 tons, he exclaimed, “Master, it lacks only one thing, and that is speech!”

To most people, this piece of marble was ruined beyond repair. But in the hands of a master sculptor, it became a work of art. God is in the business of fresh starts; the business of making things new. However, we need to allow the Master to do his work. We can't work against the process. We can't make a fresh start if we try to bring along some of our rotten baggage.

Sometimes we try to make a fresh start while holding onto some of the things that we need to let go of. Whether it's something or someone or maybe just an attitude or behavior. Sometimes we think we can make a fresh start by simply making the trash look prettier. My idea of a fresh start does not include giving up my bad habit, but by changing the way I do it.

Instead of making a fresh start by ending that bad relationship and distancing myself from them I'll still keep in touch. Instead of changing the people, places and things I should, I'll try to keep them in my life and just rework it a little. There may be times in our lives where just changing something will work but most of the time a fresh start means making a clean break.

If we leave the back door open we leave ourselves open to getting caught back up in the things that caused us to need a fresh start in the first place. Luke 9:62, "Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus knew the dangers of not completely letting go. If you try to make a fresh start and move forward while a part of you is looking back, in some way regretting the decision to let go, then your "fresh" start will not be so fresh. Do we long for what we left behind because we are somehow pretending that it wasn't so bad or we convince ourselves that it can be better somehow?

Glamorizing, rationalizing or minimizing will put us in denial. Hoarders. If they are going to make a fresh start they need to get rid of the trash. But first they need to see it as trash. Everyone around them can see it but they need to see it. Then, even if they get to the point of agreeing with others, they still need to make the break and get rid of it. They need to see that it is in their best interest and they need to see that there's help to get them through this process.