new.

Everyone uses the new year as an excuse to start over, to spark a change they want to see in themselves. We make resolutions about how we are going to act better, live better, and just BE better... But why do we need a change in the date to spark transformation?
What is it about a new year that is so inviting? A fresh start? A new opportunity? Another chance to be who we've always wanted to be? 
We long so desperately for a clean slate, for a renewal of our lives, and above anything, we associate that transformation with a date on the calendar... what a shame.
Do we not realize that our slate is kept continually clean by a God who is calling us to start over, to be new, right now?

Don't get me wrong, if a new year is what you need, or if it helps, to spark a change in you, then that's ok, it's always good to better yourself, but this year, try something new. 
Let your resolution be to constantly accept God's inability to hold your sins against you. Let your resolution be to live every day as a new day. Resolve to challenge yourself every day instead of waiting until the next January 1st. Because just like today is a new day, so will the next and the next. And God is inviting us to a radical transformation. We are new. Today is a new day.

So then, let us resolve to live in mercy, to live in compassion, to love those around us, and let us go out of our way to love. Let us remember that we don't love people because we are good people, but we love people as a response to the incredible, passionate love that we have received.
Let us live in an upside-down Kingdom, where the weak are strong, where the rich are poor.
Lord, teach us how to give as you have given to us.
Teach us how to love as you have loved us.
Lord, we are new.
Today is a new day.