When I was in 8th grade my dad came to my room late one night, sat on the edge of my bed and told me he had some news. He proceeded to tell me we were moving. I was devastated. In my 8th grade world I had all I could ever want. Everything in my life was going my way; friends, school, sports. Moving was absolutely the worst thing anyone could’ve done to me. I told my dad I hated him. I know, that was an awful thing to say, but that’s the way I felt at the time, and as a typical self-indulgent 14 year old, I said what I was thinking regardless of who got hurt. I believed my dad was ruining my life. Starting over somewhere new seemed like a cruel trick to play on a 14 year old who’d spent most of his life getting everything lined up the way he wanted it.
But my parents slowly began to introduce me to the idea that there might be some good parts to starting over. For instance, moving would give me a chance to reinvent myself. I played the trumpet but in my previous life I was embarrassed to take my trumpet home to practice for fear of what my “jock” friends would think of me. In my new town, in my new school, with my new friends I could start fresh and be whatever or whoever I wanted to be. I started taking my instrument home to practice. I started a new sport I’d never done before; wrestling. I got more involved in my new church than I was in my old church. Despite my belief that my life was ruined; moving gave me a chance for renewal.
The early Hebrews understood the need for renewal. They practiced a tradition called Mikvah. A Mikvah was a ritual washing that the Jews would participate in before entering the temple for worship. They would immerse themselves in water as a way of washing away the past and starting over. The idea was that they were washed clean and would emerge from the water with a chance to reset their lives- to restart- to become the people they had been created to be. The Christian tradition took the idea of the Mikvah and suggested that Christians could renew themselves without the water, but with the simple act of repentance. Repentance comes from the Greek word Metanoia which means changing direction. The Christian could be renewed by simply asking for forgiveness. Repentance represented the cleansing that the water represented in the Jewish tradition. But either way, whether Jewish or Christian, both traditions recognized the need to change direction; to start over; to be renewed.
I experienced a renewal in the 8th grade. Despite my anger and frustration, moving proved to be a very important and valuable resetting of my life and my priorities. Our faith gives us a chance at this same kind of renewal at the start of each new day. 2nd Corinthians 5:17 tells us “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” As you begin your day, I invite you to ask God to renew you, giving you a fresh start – the past is finished and gone, may everything become fresh and new.
