By Tanya Jolliffe RDN, LD, CMHIMP
Spring has sprung, and today the words to the 1970’s Chicago song, “Beginnings” keep going through my head. “Only the beginning, only just the start.”
Each year, spring reminds us of new life, new birth, and new beginnings. Throughout our lifetime we face many new beginnings. Each time we start a new job, move to a new home, get married, or become a parent, it is a new beginning.
The greatest new beginning we can experience is becoming a new creation in Christ! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)! When we make that important decision, it truly is only the beginning, only just the start.
Are you a person that loves change and embraces trying something new, or do you enter the process reluctantly? I have found myself to be a mixture of the two. Sometimes I jump headlong into a new opportunity especially when it is my choice. However, when I am unexpectedly thrown into something new, I am like a cat being tossed into water.
Lately it seems the world is constantly throwing us into something new. Our mindset and how we approach these new beginnings will have everything to do with the level of stress and anxiety we experience. Scripture is a great place to get a new perspective when we feel hesitant to embrace something new. Consider these wise words:
“Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19 NASB).
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 NASB).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 NASB).
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7 NASB).
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure'” (Isaiah 46:10 NASB).
We were created for a purpose and our purpose is a new beginning each time we take a step into His plan for our lives, His plan versus our own.
When we read the back of the Bible, we are reminded that in the end we win. How easy it is to forget that in the middle of the unknown. However, when the stress of each new beginning sets in, if we fix our eyes on Jesus and the price of the cross, we can plainly see the glory that can come from a new beginning. Jesus left that dark tomb to step out into the glorious light of a new beginning, a new beginning that he provided for us all.
