It’s that time of the year again….Out with the old and in with the new!
But the truth is, I can never be new, if I am not MADE new. I cannot make myself new by “rearranging the furniture” in my life. That kind of rearranging (new body, new job, new mate, new goal, etc.) gives the illusion of newness that soon dies off, as we all know.
A good question to ask ourselves might be: “Can true newness really die off?” No, it cannot. It is God’s hand that transforms and when we make the necessary sacrifice of self that the moment calls for, we are made eternally new through God’s grace for that sacrifice.
This world knows nothing of that kind of newness. This world perpetuates the old with every living breath of itself. How many complaints will a person make before they see the “old” in that? How many times will a person gossip or speak negatively about another before they see the “old” in that? How many times will a person judge or blame another to make themselves feel superior, before they see the “old” in that?
And you know what? The “OLD man” or “OLD woman” inside of you (that currently lives your life for you, by the way), will resist these very words because that “old man” or “old woman” WANTS you to REMAIN THE OLD…. Wants you to remain the complainer, the gossiper, the judge and the superior one.
Here’s a great test to prove that one lives from a very old nature: Make a 2022 resolution that you will not inwardly or outwardly complain (or choose gossip or anything else that is a negative tendency in you). You will soon come to find, if you are honest, that you can’t help yourself from doing the evil that you don’t wish to do. Why? Because it is not your true Self that is doing that evil. It is the OLD man or OLD woman in you that has stolen your life and has been living it for you with your unconscious consent. Blessed is the poor in spirit means we see the poverty of self. We see that we cannot help ourselves from doing the evil that we don’t want to do. We see that there is a true need for God.
So few men and women will agree to stand in the moment and allow God to make them new, which would be to agree to BE the change that we wish to see in this world. To agree to let God live his live through us by sacrificing our own.
Why are there so few that are willing to be God’s instrument? Because it is easier to complain, gossip, judge and blame than it is to make a painful sacrifice of that old self. It is easier to remain the same, than it is to give up the very parts of one self that are old, borrowed and negative.
The whole representation of Christ on the cross IS this very idea. The crucifixion of self – moment to moment. Not my will, but Thy Will be Done. Conscious suffering which is difficult, yet the only way for transformation to occur.
Any true goodness manifested in this world has come only by way of immense sacrifice. Any all of it, every last bit of it, has been God’s hand.
May 2022 be a resolution and revelation of the right kind.
Blessings to all.
Image courtesy of: Photo by Myriam Zilles on Unsplash
