I wish there were some wonderful place
Called the land of Beginning Again.
Grace Is Amazing.
“If a man is in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 JBPhillips.
My thoughts today are about how to, “begin again.”
Common to all, the story of our lives is a mixed history. And I imagine you have a similar story. Your natural self and your better self are competitive, even combative. All of us have had wonderful times we love to recall and relive. And there have been memories we are still struggling to release. Memory can be a friend or become an adversary.
Life is never static for long. Life seems to be colored with a rainbow of experiences. Years earlier, I read a lovely poem,
The Land of Beginning Again, by Louisa Fletcher.
I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all of our poor selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,
And never put on again.
I wish we could come on it all unaware,
Like the hunter who finds a lost trail;
And I wish that the one whom our blindness had done
The greatest injustice of all
Could be at the gates like an old friend that waits
For the comrade he’s gladdest to hail.
We would find all the things we intended to do
But forgot, and remembered too late,
Little praises unspoken, little promises broken,
And all of the thousand and one,
Little duties neglected that might have perfected
The day for one less fortunate.
It wouldn’t be possible not to be kind,
In the land of Beginning Again,
And the ones we misjudged and the ones
Whom we grudged the moments of victory here
Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp,
More than penitent lips could explain.
For what had been hardest we’d know had been best
And what had seemed loss would be gain;
For there isn’t a sting that will not take wing
When we’ve faced it and laughed it away;
And I think that the laughter is most what we’re after
In the land of Beginning Again.
So I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all of our poor selfish grief,
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,
And never be put on again.
I think bitter tears filled Paul’s eyes as he wrote, “How intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.” Galatians 1:13 NIV. Saul of Tarsus needed a place to begin again and found that power and peace when he met Jesus. He discovered the amazing grace in this truth, “If any man is in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether – the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 JBPhillips. Your history can be finished and gone. Your destiny is fresh and new.
If God did that for one, He would do that for all. How does that destiny-shaping transformation occur? Paul wrote, ”You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Colossians 3:9-10 NIV.
But how do you do that? The Bible explains, ”You must be born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:23 NKJ. You can begin again, and when you do, a transformation of both character and conduct is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, Who is both for you and with you.
Your natural self and your better self are competitive, even combative. You determine which will succumb and which will triumph. “Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness.”Ephesians 4:24 NIV. In Christ, new beginnings abound.
You cannot accomplish this by your own strength and determination. Old habits are hard to break. Success over the flesh flows from uncompromised obedience to God. For either good or ill, every repetition strengthens habitual behavior. Break the learned patterns. The wrong thing seems the easiest thing but is never the right thing to do.
Paul correctly reasons, “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16 NKJ. Religion alone is never enough. And your best efforts will fail. The Holy Spirit happily abides wherever Jesus is welcomed to be Lord.
Today, my prayer is that you open your heart to new possibilities.
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