Thursday, January 1, 2015

New Beginnings

It has been almost 3 years since I've posted anything ... but here we go:

I intended to keep this blog going after seminary and I didn't even make it to the end of seminary.  It seems I stopped while wrapping up my thesis.  Yes, I did finish it.  Yes, I did graduate.  Yes, I was ordained first a deacon and six months later a priest.  I've been serving in the same parish since July 1, 2012 and hope to remain here for a long time yet to come.  I've thought often of my orphaned blog but just haven't done anything about it.  I can say I've been using all my energy to get my feet on the ground and learn the ways of parish ministry and that's a big part of it.  But more than anything, I guess I've just procrastinated.  I do that ...

And so here it is, New Year's Day and I'm sitting here with my coffee reflecting on new beginnings.  To me that's what New Year's is, one more way we can rejoice in the hope of life that we have through Jesus Christ.  It's all about new beginnings.  We can mess up in the worst way imaginable and God will forgive us when we ask.  A new beginning.  If things haven't gone as we wanted them to, God gives us each new day to live into who he is calling us to be.  A new beginning.  If we've let things slip in our relationship with God or with others, we can try again to work at the habits and disciplines that all relationships require to be nurtured and to grow.  A new beginning.  When we let go of our own physical care, we can get up today and eat healthier and exercise more.  A new beginning.  If we've found ourselves caught up in negative views of the world and people around us, we can remember that we are to bring God's goodness into this world, turn off the sensationalist newscasts and smile at the next person we encounter.  A new beginning.

As we go through the church calendar each year, we live in the cycle of new beginnings over and over again.  It isn't about trying to be perfect but about letting ourselves be formed, continually, by our trying with God's help.  

I don't do New Year's Resolutions and I don't expect some miracle to take place at midnight every New Year's Eve that will instantly make me a better person.  But I do believe in Jesus Christ and the process known in theological circles as Sanctification - the ongoing formation of my being into someone who, when I willingly surrender to God's will, is made more and more like he desires me to be.  

So, I'm beginning again with my writing, using the talent that God has given me for his Glory.  I don't yet know how often, but I will go for a few times a week.  I don't yet know what all I'll write about but I hope you find it uplifting and formative.  I'm just beginning again, trying to hear what God is saying and doing my best to reveal his hope and love to this world.      

May the peace of the Lord be always with you.  
Mtr. Nancy+