New Beginnings

"Though no-one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start now and make a brand-new beginning." – Unknown

I doubt if there is anyone who would examine his or her life and figure it has turned out perfectly well. No one can go through life without picking up an occasional regret here and there for things said or unsaid; done or undone.

We all make our choices on the fly, and in reviewing many of those decisions, it would be easy to second-guess ourselves, grieving over mistakes, chastising ourselves for things that, ultimately, do little more than confirm what we ought to know instinctively: that we are human.

Yes, sometimes we are dunderheads, but that’s not a bad thing. We do not have infinite wisdom, knowledge, or grace. Those are things we have to learn. It takes time; it takes patience; it takes reflection; and it takes the love of a community.

Strangers do not care whether or not you and I learn anything in life. They do not care whether we live or die. They do not care whether or not we have jobs, homes, food, friends, family, or the basic necessities of life.

Strangers do not care if one is hungry, lonely, in pain, or in desperate straits. Strangers care only for what is on their hearts and minds at any given moment.

But communities care; true communities care.

God did not make us for estrangement, but for community. The human heart yearns for a home.

From the moment she is born, a child yearns to be held, embraced, fed, and cared for. Children who are emotionally strong are those who have known the loving embrace of parents – the most basic community – parents who have said in word and deed: You belong.

Too few of us know that kind of love. Too many people go through life having to prove themselves over and over again. One’s value in our Free-market society, is evaluated almost exclusively on one’s ability to meet someone else’s need, or to advance the other person’s agenda. As soon as your stock drops a point, you are at risk of becoming persona non grata – an unwelcomed liability and, ultimately, an apple bobbing alone and out of season in the washtub of life.

Sadly, that is the world we live in. Doubly sad is the fact that so many of us buy into that nonsense. We judge as we have been judged. Out of a fear of being rejected or tossed out with the bathwater, we devote our lives to the construction of barriers, content to live behind a façade of civility; and why not? Who wants to be hurt over and over again?

Spiritual growth demands that we take risks, however. As narcissistic as our world is, we must learn to break free of toxic isolation and build fellowships that are genuine in their design to be whole and healthy. We must learn to overcome the shame that binds us and blinds us, and to embrace the One whose love is boundless, and who loves each and every one of us without reservation.

How do we do that? First, we must come to accept that God loves us unconditionally. God does not love us for what we bring to the table; God loves us for being his children. God loves us for being AT the table, not for what we bring TO it.

Secondly, we must come to love ourselves – not with an ego-centric, self-centered love, but a love that acknowledges our human capacity to be stupid, selfish, and unforgiving at times, but equally, our ability to rise above such “stinkin’ thinkin’” for the sake of the greater good.

We must be able to look back at life to see where we’ve been, but more importantly we must be able to look forward and see the world as it can be; for nothing is impossible with God. It just takes time, patience, and a willingness to exchange your reality with God’s reality.

Looking back, I’m sorry I didn’t start sooner, but I can’t wallow in the regrets.

Though no-one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start now and make a brand-new beginning.

We simply need to accept ourselves the way God knows we can be in this, our world.