A New Calendar

Year 6-Day 1: Today, I am grateful for a new calendar.

It is one of those silly little pleasures. Putting away an old calendar or date book to pull out a new one. It is something we only get to savor once a year. In this day of digital organization, I still need things in writing. For me, the act of writing something down helps it stick in my memory. If it is on a cute calendar. it is even better. 

I like to have calendars in more than one place and it allows me to enjoy different artists. My Mary Engelbreit is my go to on the fridge and at work, but I also like to keep one near my computer in my grateful spot where I study, write, study and create. 

I have to be vigilant with dates. Sometimes, I mix up numbers so I try to check, recheck and check again. (Letters and words behave much better for me than numbers and dates.) A calendar helps me in that struggle, so my calendar is like a friend who helps me organized and gently reminds me when I have packed the week or month too full.  

A new calendar is a clean slate. In Latin, the term is tabula rasa.  It is defined as "the absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate." At the stroke of midnight on December 31st... the old year is washed away. We have a get a reset. A fresh start... a new beginning... and new hopes and dreams on the horizon. 

In the same way, when we accept Christ... it is a clean slate. When we confess and repent... our sins are washed away. We get a new start. King David cried out, "Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit in me." To be redeemed is to be given a blank slate with our sin debts paid in full. Cancelled out so that we can have a fresh new start. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. -2 Corinthians 5:17

At the start of a new year, we pack away last year's calendar. It happened, but it no longer directs our lives. What is behind us is over. Done. A new calendar presents opportunity, decisions, new priorities and possibilities.

“Remember not the former things,nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness  and rivers in the desert. -Isaiah 43:18-19

A new thing! Isn't that grand? Do you get it? Can you feel it? New ways to spend our days. Resolutions are easy to make but hard to keep. What if we simply woke up to embrace the new calendar with prayerful diligence? Can we make this new calendar year one that pursues the heart of Christ in our days and in our ways? 

Savor the new beginning. Every day is a gift, but this first day of the year is extra special. 

Today, I am grateful for a new calendar.