I actually feel it before I hear it. As I come to a stop at the intersection, I roll down the car windows and smile. A drumline! Memories flood back of band practice and football games. It’s the same feeling I’ve gotten these last few weeks every time I’ve gone to Target. With the aisles of notebooks and pens, crayons and backpacks there’s a sense that I should be stocking up, gearing up for a new year. Fall can’t be far behind (please!) and with it the promise of a respite from these long hot days of summer.

As children, the start of a new school year was our practice run for the grown up ritual of making New Year’s resolutions. We started with a clean slate, sharpened pencils and notebooks full of paper just waiting to be written on. THIS was going to be the year we finally became who we wanted to be: the pretty one, the athletic one, the popular one, the smart one, the cool one. The nicest thing about growing up is the ability to reconcile the person you are with the person you wanted to be! But the feeling that you could truly start over every fall was so exciting! And sometimes…it was a little scary.

We get that same sense of renewal in our church life. Even something as simple as a new coat of paint on the walls is like a breath of fresh air. Attending a different service than we usually do or just sitting in a different pew sometimes makes us feel like we’ve attended an altogether different church! But more important than these physical changes is the one that happens within. Paul told the Corinthians,

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

We get to start over, new backpack and all! And when we mess up, the God of second chances tells us, “Why don’t you start over again?”

My hope for us all at Singing Oaks is that we seek that feeling of “starting over.” Like children on the first day of school, let’s eagerly anticipate what lies before us. There will be changes, and some will be scary. The best gift we can give each other is to wipe the slates clean of old hurts and old pride, and join each other on this journey.

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us up to heaven.” Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)

Blessings on your “new year”!