Something new & worship

I bought my 2009 dayplanner today (the exact one is pictured above). I spend months near the end of every year researching the best layout for a dayplanner for the following year. I want very specific things in a dayplanner, and usually I can’t find one that meets all my criteria. I admit I usually end up buying a few before I find the right one, much to my husband’s dismay.

I think I should also mention my love of stationary in general – that may explain a few things. And I like my stationary ‘new’. New paper, new pens, new pencils, even (shhh) stickers! – man, i love a good pen and a really nicely-papered notebook. If I just collected stationary and never used them, that would be fine. I even love simply looking at new things.

I love pulling out a new notebook for a new class or a new venture. I love opening a new sketch book or a new music book. Every new project and definitely every new season should begin with a new set of stationary-somethings. It’s like cracking open a new book that you’ve been waiting to read. Everything smells so good and new, you can’t help but be inspired. Yes, that’s it, new dayplanners, new notebooks… NEW THINGS inspire me.

I wonder why.

In 2 Cor. 5:17, Paul writes: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”. Oooooh, I like the sound of that! Remember, I like the ‘new’. The Message Paraphrase says it a little differently, but essentially the same:

“Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.” (2 Cor. 5:17-18)

The truth of it all is that we want to be new. We buy new clothes, when we have closets full of perfectly suitable outfits, but we just need that one more ‘new’ thing to finish off the look, right? Or we have a great car, but there’s a new model this year that is even more perfect because it has a ‘new’ feature that wasn’t available last year. We have new homes, new hairdos, new friends, new husbands, new wives, new careers, new churches, new religions, new cameras – absolutely everything is disposable when we are on the hunt for something new and we justify it with fervent passion.

Ok… so maybe the truth is that we are looking for ‘new’ in all the wrong places, and we just need to look at the foot of cross, where our ‘old’ selves lay, with our sin and failings and where our ‘new’ selves are available for the taking, but only if we’ll lay the old down and pick up the new, with the commitment to pursue holiness and righteousness – because that is the only way to prevent going back to the old way of living and thinking – our humanity (flesh, sin) cries out to us from the foot of the cross, but we don’t need to respond. If we don’t let go of the ‘old’, we won’t have any place to hold the ‘new’.

We don’t need to find a new religion, or a new ‘god’! But in a society where when we just get bored of ‘working at it’, we are encouraged to ‘try something new’… let me just tell you from years and years of personal experience – everything new that is out there is actually just a ‘return to the old’. Whatever is catching your eye right now – won’t look anywhere near as good the moment you have it. (The grass is so totally NOT greener on the other side) Everything has been said and done before, except the truth of the gospel. What Jesus did, had never been done before nor has it been done since.

When God does something, it’s original and it’s unconditional. He is the Creator all ALL (new) things, and His works are unprecedented and unsurpassed. When God does a ‘new thing’ it’s not a counterfeit, it’s the real deal and it doesn’t expire nor does it wear out. You can’t get a knock-off of what God is doing, as hard as the Devil tries to scam us. God is the real thing and we can have that NEW THING today through Jesus.

I love new things, yes I admit it – but more than anything I love the work and the person of Jesus Christ because thru Him I AM THE NEW THING! I don’t need to look any further than Jesus to get my fix – although a good stationary store can sure tempt! *wink, wink*

Enjoy the beautiful sunshine today. Enjoy the fact that although yesterday you failed miserably (we all do), perhaps at work or at home, or maybe even just a moment ago you gave yourself over to a nagging habit – you get another shot – RIGHT NOW! Just ask Jesus to forgive you, confess your sin and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you again.

This is our worship. We worship God in response to the fact that we are new creation – old things are passed away – this is something to be thankful for. As I finish my ‘thoughts’ I am reminded of Romans 12:1:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Wow, as I seek God, He never stops showing me ‘new’ ways for me to worship Him. My BEING NEW is worship unto God. Choosing Him, living right, repenting of sin (turning away altogether) and making new choices – Becoming that NEW CREATION that we are invited to become- this is our worship.

I can do that – afterall I love NEW things…certainly I can jump on this bandwagon.

In Christ,
erin