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.
The Israelites had a similar problem. God gave them a fresh start by getting them out of Egypt but soon afterward when there was a setback they wanted to go back to Egypt. It was foolish to want to go back to the land of slavery but it was predictable. They minimized and glamorized their oppressive conditions. But God used Moses to show them that this change was not to be feared but embraced.
Sometimes in making a fresh start we may long for what we left behind. But when that happens we need a healthy dose of reality. Rom. 6:20-23, "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Paul said in vs. 19 that they were weak in their natural selves. The Romans had escaped, they had made that fresh start but the old filth still called to them. So Paul gives them a reality check. It's like he's saying, "in your temptation to go back and take part in the things that need to be cut off I want you to ask yourselves something-what did it really do for you? How did it better your life; how did it fulfill you? On the contrary-think about how it was destroying you. Think about how it still could destroy you."
This is the reality check we need but it often doesn't make staying committed to the fresh start any easier. Spiritually we all need a fresh start. Even though we get to the place of realizing it we still need to do the hard part of breaking free from the garbage that had been smothering us and preventing us from reaching our true potential.
2) A fresh start can feel rotten...at first.
John15:1-2, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." This is true both individually and collectively.
Think about it-pruning, cutting off-doesn't sound like much fun does it? However, pruning gets rid of dead weight; it gets rid of what is dragging the good branches down. We're trying to grow and flourish but something is slowing us down. We're carrying dead weight. Sometimes we have good branches but they're being smothered by dead branches.
In the immediacy the pruning process doesn't feel very good; but afterwards it's actually a relief. It's freeing; it allows for freshness to blossom. The Greek word for prunes also means cleans. We all know how good we feel when we get clean. We feel fresh, invigorated; like a new person.
If we don't go through the pruning process it will stifle production. Isaiah 5 likens Israel to a vineyard. The prophet talks about how God did everything to ensure a good crop but yet when he looked for good fruit he found only bad. God gave Israel everything they needed to produce a good crop but they didn't.
So, as a consequence he stopped tending it. Isaiah 5:6, "I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” We see that if the vineyard isn't pruned briars and thorns will flourish instead of fruit. If we don't go through the pruning process we will be overtaken by weeds and those weeds will stifle the growth of the plant.
Pruning is a good and necessary thing. A fresh start can feel rotten...but only in the beginning. Like when you go to the dentist. Getting that shot of Novocain hurts. But that allows the dentist to take out the decay and then you're in better shape once it's over.
One of the ways God prunes is through discipline. Hebrews 12:11, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." The process of discipline hurts but it will produce a harvest of the fruit of righteousness if we are willing to accept it.
Sometimes God prunes by removing the branches for us. Maybe we're struggling getting rid of the dead weight or bad fruit from our lives. Then, God causes something to happen where we lose whatever or whoever it is that's holding us back. Again, that loss, although good for us, can be a painful break but if we receive it for what it is we will seize the opportunity to move forward and bloom. This is the fresh start we need and the opportunity given to us to make it.
We can go through the pruning process individually and we can go through it collectively too. When people leave the church that can be a painful event. But oftentimes it's a pruning process. Although it doesn't seem like it in the beginning; it's actually a good thing.
Some people leave a church because it's just not a good fit for them. But then there are the ones who are either unproductive or worse-destructive. Pruning removes the branches that are either not bearing fruit or are bearing bad fruit.
In any given church you can have those who are around for a while but they're not active; they're not doing anything to better themselves or the kingdom. Dead weight. Oftentimes they not only don't contribute, they weigh down the progress of those who are contributing. These would be the kinds of branches that need to be pruned or cut off.
Luke 13:6-9, "Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”
God is patient with us but when sufficient time and effort produce no results the tree is in danger of being cut down and thrown out. Those who think they can just skate along in life and be okay are mistaken. God is not okay with his people sitting on the sidelines. He doesn't want fans; he wants followers.
The question is, why are we content with just getting by? Why don't we want to serve God and work for him? There was a woman who was married to a harsh husband for years. Each day he would leave her a list of chores to complete before he returned at the end of the day. “Clean the yard. Stack the firewood. Wash the windows, etc.”
If she didn’t complete the tasks, she would be greeted with his explosive anger. But even if she did complete the list, he was never satisfied; he would always find inadequacies in her work.
After several years, the husband passed away. Sometime later she remarried, this time to a man who lavished her with love and tenderness. One day, while going through a box of old papers, the wife discovered one of her first husband’s lists.
And as she read the sheet, a realization caused a tear of joy to splash on the paper. “I’m still doing all these things, but no one has to tell me to. I do it because I love him.”
This woman had been given a fresh start. Now, her service was a joy because it stemmed from love and appreciation. God has removed our 'harsh husband' and given us a fresh start. How are we responding? If our response is being idle and thinking nothing of it we need to understand that God will deal with that.
Then there are those who are bearing fruit, but it's not good fruit. It's the bad fruit of things like causing divisions or spreading false teachings. This rotten fruit can spread like wildfire if it isn't dealt with. You've heard the phrase, 'one bad apple spoils the bunch'?
Paul talked about getting rid of the bad yeast that will work through the whole batch of dough if not taken care of. There are times where the leadership removes the bad branches and there are times where God does that himself. Either way, once this pruning takes place it allows for a fresh start for the rest of the branches to flourish and grow and bear good fruit.
When it gets right down to it, as long as we stay in the center of God's will it doesn't matter what happens or where we are in life. Phil Vischer is the creator of Veggie Tales. He is the voice of Bob the Tomato and other characters. In 2004, Phil was a guest speaker at a ministers convention.
He told about his dream coming to an end. Big Idea, the name of his company, was sued in 2000 for a breach of contract, of which Phil said they were innocent. Big Idea went bankrupt and Phil lost everything. It was time for Phil Vischer to start over again. He said he learned to do what God wants to do when God wants to do it.
Phil went and pitched his new idea to a company. The board asked Phil where he thought he would be in five years. After a long and awkward pause, Phil said, "Right in the center of God’s will."
What Phil went through hurt. But God used the experience to provide an opportunity for a fresh start. And Phil came to understand it was okay as long as he stayed focused on God and his will. If we need to go through a pruning process we'll be able to handle it when we stay at the center of God's will. We don't have to worry or be afraid about anything.
Not every difficult situation is a pruning process but there is still something to be gained in going through them. A fresh start can feel rotten but when the pain is over we will be better for it if we stay connected to God and don't give up.
Sometimes, even though we make a clean break and a fresh start, that doesn't mean everything will go as planned. There may be bumps along the way and setbacks here and there but that doesn't mean the fresh start wasn't worth it. A fresh start is a new beginning. So don't turn back-trust God and keep going-then wait and see what he will do-in his time and in his way.
A fresh start can happen anytime; you don't have to wait for a special day. So why not make today that special day and make a fresh start?
