Lord, you know I need a brand new start!

I love change.  Especially if it's one I get to choose.  Control.  It's an issue with me.  How about you?  Rearranging my furniture.  Adding a new touch of this or that.  Changing colors.  New hairstyle......heck even a new toenail polish is refreshing for a little while.   When a new year begins I start a new journal and a new plan for reading through the Bible in a year.  

This year I chose to do the chronological Read Through the Bible in the New Living Translation.  I've been doing this for about 15 years now and I've discovered a few things.  You need to change things up to stay fresh.  I've done OT/NT/Proverbs/Psalm; Study Bibles (best done if you're not journaling too), chronological, straight through from Genesis to Revelation and then last year I started with the NT and finished up yesterday in Malachi.  Now the bad news is this:  I finished with Jesus in about March and I won't get to Him again until about September.  That's a long time without Jesus!!!!  The good thing is I have to purpose to find Him throughout all those OT books!  Just like we have to purpose to find Him in this day in-day out life that we are living.

I also chose for my journal to do My Utmost for His Highest.  I have done this many times over the years but it's still my go-to devotional journal for its depth and passion.  And as usual Oswald spoke to me again from day one.

Crisp new pages.  New bookmarks.  New highlighters.  New year.

But what all these things really mean to me are a new me.  

Lord, I need a new brand new start!  Over the last nearly eight years since tragedy so ravaged our family I have lost so much passion and crispness in my walk with the Lord.  I'm just going to be honest with you.  I have spent a lot of years being resigned.  

     Resigned to 'this' being my lot in life.
          Resigned to 'God will have His way' - why ____________?
               Resigned to a life of fear - 'it' happened to me, it could again.
                    Resigned to holding back.

And just about the time my heart seems ready to burst into abandon "I am yours God.  Take me and use me to Your glory," my old familar friend, fear's tentacles tighten and the enemy whispers, "You said that once before and look what happened!"  

To be honest - this kind of living - as normal as it might be for all I've lived through is not glorifying to the Lord.  Oswald Chambers - just this morning - day one - said that living a life without courage is shameful.  And that's what my life has been like - courage-less!  I've been afraid to be abandoned to the Lord.  

Now don't get me wrong.  God is gracious and merciful.  He understands my flesh.  My fear.  My need to have time to grieve, to work through, to heal.  He knows me and loves me.  I am not being too hard on myself.  I am just saying....there is a time for all things under heaven.  And my time has come to 'start over.' 

How about you?  A new year is a good time for a new you.  It doesn't take loss of loved ones to make you afraid to fully live.  To lack courage.  There are a lot of losses out there - relationships, marriages, financial, health......and with each hit our courage usually takes a hit.   So Lord, we need a brand new start.  A do-over.  A make-over.  A dose of courage for this new year.

We don't know what it holds.  But we know Who holds it.   

In my mind I picture myself at the start of a path - a path which is only visible right in front of my face.  I don't see the curves - or straight.  The plains - or the mountains.  The shadows - or the sunshine.  The giving of gifts - or the removal of them.  I do see little old me with a shaky hand reaching up for my Abba Father's hand.  He who sees the end from the beginning.  He who IS the light where darkness may threaten.  He has me.  His hand infuses courage.  

And we start out.  

Won't you go with us?  A fresh start.  As weak and shaky as we may be.  He is our courage.

Bring it 2013.  Our God is able and He has my hand.