New Beginnings

      By Fern Horst

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1:2-4)

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5:17)

I recently undertook the task of restoring an older motorhome. When I bought it, the paint was peeled off in places, there were small areas of rust here and there, and the whole vehicle had long ago lost its luster and attractiveness. Thirty years of travel and sitting unprotected in the weather had deteriorated its exterior.

With the help of family members, and over weeks and weeks of work, we scrubbed off all the old grime and grease, and removed old caulking and replaced it with new. We sanded and primed it and sanded some more, and then finally covered it with a brand new coat of paint.

Where once there was dullness there is now shine. Where once there were patches of bare metal and rust, there is now a smooth and continuous surface of color. It was once a grimy and ugly old motorhome that I wanted to hide in the backyard. Now it is an attractive vintage vehicle ready to roll down the road. It's the same motorhome, but in many ways it has become new again.

Jesus does much the same with our own lives. On our own, over time, we deteriorate. Attitudes turn rotten; discouragement replaces ambition; hope turns to bitterness; dreams for our lives disintegrate into deep disappointment - a spouse leaves or dies, the "right one" never shows up, biological clocks stop ticking, careers take a nose dive. Taking our eyes off of Jesus, we allow ourselves in discouragement to drift to the side of the road and just sit. Our deterioration begins, and we feel that our lives no longer have meaning or purpose.

But when we realize what has happened and ask Jesus to turn our ugliness into beauty, to replace our spirits of heaviness with praise, and to restore us to purpose once again, He is more than willing to do so! But the restoration doesn't happen overnight. Just as turning my ugly old motorhome into an attractive vehicle took hard work and the trying of my patience, so too can the transformation of our lives from defeat and discouragement to restored vigor and purpose. It's not always a fun process to have our bad attitudes sanded down, our discouragement scrubbed away, and the luster restored to our sense of purpose. But all of it is important to reach the state of newness that God wants to bring to us once again.

It's important to keep in focus through the whole restoration process that God has a purpose for our lives and that He always has had one. If we lost our sense of purpose, it is simply that: our sense of purpose that was lost. God's purpose for us remained intact all along. He doesn't force us to stay on the right track for our lives. But when we realize we have lost our way and turn to Him for help, He is more than willing to help us get back to where He wants us to be, and to turn the deterioration of our lives into newness of life.

"... to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3)

© 2008 Fern Horst

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