When you start over, you don’t start from scratch, you start from experience.
Anonymous
The above quote was on the daily note board at the gym this week. An encouraging word at the beginning of this new year. It’s specifically in reference to the influx of workout folks of the New Year’s resolution kind. If they’ve given up exercising or weightlifting or bodybuilding or are simply determined to get some movement back into their daily routine, Anonymous is providing a fresh perspective. And beyond the dumbbells and elliptical machines, it’s also a hopeful word for those of us starting over in an effort to lose weight after the sweet wreckage of yet another holiday season. For me, I think it’s about Start #42, so the saying is true. I will most certainly start from experience! Lord, help!
Beyond that, life priorities can get scrambled in the messy process of living. Some things just slow down. Others get blitzed in the busyness of the daily. Some things get buried under multiple, urgent demands on our time. Difficulties and disappointments play a role, too. Relationships can take a beating due to a flurry of both legitimate needs and non-productive distractions (with which we are inundated!). We are, none of us, immune.
Scripture reminds us: Be on your guard. Be alert. Think on things that fit well with Philippians 4:7,8. Jesus tells us: Remain in me. Love one another as I have loved you. The Apostle Paul exhorts: As much as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. We know all this. But these things, too, can get scrambled in ways we never intended. That’s why an invitation to start over is so heartwarming, so welcoming! Knowing that there is no condemnation awaiting us as ‘Jesus lovers,’ we dare to step, again, into the water – with past experience buoying us up!
The centuries-long saga of the children of Israel is one that highlights the faithfulness of God to His chosen people. Despite wanderings and disobediences, despite warnings and harsh, prophetic interventions, despite hardships and exiles: GOD. With unwearying tenderness, He woos His children back to Himself, back to safety, back to the life of holiness.
It’s January, 2026, and God, in His faithfulness, is calling loved ones ‘back home’ from whatever ‘far country’ they find themselves waking up in day after day. So good! Looking forward to seeing you worshipers of God tomorrow, as we begin walking together these twelve months of 2026, 10 AM, 3 PM UK. PD