070101 Montgomery Journey Article - "New Beginnings"

For many Americans January is a month when “the holidays are over” and everyone has to get back to the business of everyday life. In fact, divorce and bankruptcy lawyers say January is one of the busiest times of the year. Some say their January caseload is almost double in comparison to other months.
What makes people give up on their relationships and obligations in the New Year? Some say they just want a fresh start. Others complain that they have something like post-holiday emotional blues. Still others give reasons that reveal a deeper sense of failed expectations. They may have in their minds what family life should be like and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve seem to make it more obvious that they don’t have what they might expect. Presents cost more than the joy of giving or receiving seems to pay back for the efforts made. Anger and even hatred seem to be more frequent than loving compassion or gentleness. Hope in things becomes more important than trusting in relationships. The community is dysfunctional and nobody seems to care (much less ask how) to put Humpty Dumpty back together to restore a kingdom of broken promises over again. All of these conditions suggest that we are prone to fear and reject the prospect of starting over again where mistakes, sin and inadequacies are so glaringly obvious. In the midst of our fear and rejection we would throw the baby out with the wash . . . look for greener pastures . . . find the good life without the same responsibilities, without the need to show love or respect to the same persons, and without having to answer to anyone about the consequences of our actions.
The prophet Micah told us several centuries before Jesus Christ was born, that God has already told us “what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
The traditional church year calls this time Epiphany. It is a time of beginning again. The 6th of January is Three Kings Day, which celebrates the Magi's visit to the Christ Child and reminds us that Christ was sent to be Savior of all people. Those wise men were warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod. They returned home "by another road." For this reason Epiphany is often connected with a change in direction or close encounter with the supernatural that changes our perceptions or causes us to see ourselves or the world in a new way.
New beginnings and epiphanies can and should bring us to a sense of stirring and reaching out to God from whom real power and authority to change comes. To err is human and all of us have faltered, fallen, got up again, and gone on to become successful in some endeavors despite overwhelming problems. We have frustrations, heartaches and grief that remind us that there’s got to be more than this. This can’t be the end of the story. Jesus of Nazareth teaches us in His death, burial and resurrection that there is always the possibility of beginning anew. He promises to be with you always and grants us personal epiphanies again and again so that we may know and serve Christ in spite of our personal disappointments, lack of hope and sense of hopelessness.
You have a choice to live each day as a time of New Beginnings. The apostle Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
For all of us, God promises to make all things new. In our endings and in our beginnings, God is present, loving us and making our lives new.
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ and ask Him to live with us, our old lives are full of sin. We need a complete spiritual change. Only Jesus Christ can do this while the Holy Spirit comes, draws us into a faithful relationship and changes us from the inside. "Everything old has passed away."
Won’t you please pray this prayer with me? Heavenly Father, thank You for all new beginnings. Help me to walk humbly with you all the days of my life totally confessing my sin and emptiness without You. Help me to truly understand and live each day as a new beginning with You and with all those whom You have given for me to love and serve. Help me to not feel hopeless, but to experience the joy and expectation of the abundant life Jesus comes to give me.
You Lord are the author and finisher of my new beginnings. Please help me to trust you. When there are endings for me, help me to trust You to be with me and others around me so as to show us new opportunities for compassion, hope and community.
When we walk with You, all things become new. In the blessed name and hope of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Pastor Ron and his wife Annemarie came to work for God at Dexter Avenue United Methodist Church and the Montgomery community last June. Ron is also one of the Chaplains for the Montgomery Police Department, pastor for the Academy at the Helen Hunt Learning Center, and retired member of the Florida, Georgia and Federal Bar Associations. Annemarie and he are celebrating their 38th year of marriage while all three of their children and all five of their grandchildren live in Atlanta.