Monday, January 20, 2014

New Beginnings

This post is part of Januarys Synchroblog. This months subject is new beginnings. Other participants will be listed at the end of this post.



On the surface I don't appear to be a new beginnings type of person.
By that I mean:-

  • I've lived in the same house for 18 years.
  • I've owned the same people-mover van for over 10 years.
  • I've been in my current job for 5 years and that's only because I got made redundant from my previous job of 17 years.
  • I've been married to Nicola for 27 years.
  • I've lived in or near my home city for most of my life.
  • I've owned the same Thompson Chain reference Bible for over 20 years.
From the above facts you might conclude that poor old Phil has lived a pretty boring life. Not true. I once changed from Nikon to Canon camera gear (but then I saw the light and changed back to Nikon).

But seriously, new beginnings are often small and insignificant in the big scheme of things. We tend to look at new beginnings as the big things that happen in life like births, deaths, marriages, job changes, moving to a different city, becoming a Christian, changing church etc etc. but the significant new beginnings are often hidden within those bigger things.
For example, I may have had the same job for many years but hidden in there is the fact that other staff members come and go, so there are constant new beginnings in forming new relationships and saying goodbye to old ones.

Similarly, if we look at Jesus life on Earth we tend to look at the big miracles and the people who got healed and therefore got their new beginning.
But what about the thousands of other people who saw those miracles happen. They were just onlookers but more importantly they were onlookers who got a new beginning. It may not have been a 'born again' new beginning for all of them but it would have been a new beginning in the sense that something new had happened that demanded attention and questioned the status quo. It started them on a journey that didn't exist before.

In my own life the biggest 'new beginning that has happened in the last couple of years is that I don't 'go to church' any more. I'm sure there's plenty of people at church who think I've back-sliden but then thats the other thing about new beginnings. It can cause misunderstandings, arguments and broken relationships.

New beginnings inherently mean that something has to die.
The ultimate example of this is obviously Jesus death and resurrection.

His death meant our new beginning.

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24

Following is the list of Synchroblog participants this month. Reading each post gives lots of different perspectives.


Jen Bradbury - Enough
Abbie Watters - New Beginnings
Cara Strickland - Bursting
Done With Religion – A New Year, A New Beginning
Kelly Stanley - A Blank Canvas
Dave Criddle - Get Some New Thinking
David Derbyshire - Changed Priorities Ahead
K W Leslie - Atonement
Michelle Moseley - Ends and Beginnings
Matthew Bryant - A New Creation
Edwin Pastor Fedex Aldrich - Foreclosed: The beginning of a new dream
Jennifer Clark Tinker - Starting a New Year Presently
Loveday Anyim - New Year New Resolutions
Amy Hetland - New Beginnings
Phil Lancaster – New Beginnings
Mallory Pickering – Something Old, Something New
Margaret Boelman – The Other Side of Grief



No comments: