I have so many good memories of back-to-school. The smell of new markers, freshly sharpened pencils, and the vinyl covers of 3-ring binders with that nice clean snap of the rings closing through those nice sharp edges of new paper straight out of the package. As children, the years have sharp definition as you progress from grade to grade. Every year is a new opportunity to start over again with a mix up in the people you associate with and a change of scene as you move from classroom to classroom, teacher to teacher, getting that free reset to achieve at a higher level and create a new reputation for yourself every year. Maybe 7th grade was a rough year, but 8th grade is all new, full of opportunity, with different people in class, different teachers to impress, different subjects to master. The life of a child has new beginnings built into every year. You could be a C student all the way through elementary school and then decide you want to focus more on your school work and by high school you could be at the top of your class and ready to be accepted into the best universities. You really can get a clean slate over and over again as a child. And yet, as adults it can be far more challenging to find the reset button.
There is a theory, first put forward by Frederick Jackson Turner in the 1890s, that freedom, democracy, the American dream, and other such positive evolutions of the quality of life in the history of the world were the direct result of the creation, expansion, and availability of the American frontier. A place of new beginnings. An opportunity for the fittest to survive and meritocracy to reign. A space protected only by its being beyond the reach of those who would control it, where the best and the brightest could rise to the top unfettered by their own histories or the traditions, dogmas, expectations, culture, and institutions of established society. Every life needs a little of this kind of freedom. Every person now and again needs the opportunity to restart, refresh, turn around, and find new meaning, new identity, and new life. Each one of us needs the opportunity of a new frontier, a way to re-contextualize our life, our purpose, our relationships, and our beliefs so that we can let go of the forces that are holding us back and take advantage of our hopes and dreams by leveraging everything that we have learned to this point in life without having to overcome the repercussions of our past. This is what the frontier accomplished for America. This is what Christ accomplishes for every person who chooses to receive Him as their God and Savior.
Christ offers every human life a reset button. Christ is the universal frontier effect. Christ is how you can recapture the wonder of the child going back to school with every opportunity still in front of them to make this year the best year yet. Rather than remaining defeated and enslaved by the mistakes and errors that you have made, Jesus offers His life in place of yours. He offers to allow you to effectively be born all over again, to start all over again, to clear the slate and choose a better life, only this time rather than starting with nothing (like you did the first time), you get to start with all of the information, memories, resources, motivation, and wisdom that you have stored up.
So, as you get ready for back-to-school again this year, take a moment to consider what aspects of your life are in need of a reset button. Whether it is your health, your finances, your business, your career, your relationships. Whatever area of your life is in need of some super-natural favor, God is ready to offer you His life to replace that part of your life that is suffering or falling behind. God is offering you a frontier opportunity, a chance at resetting your expectations, your approach, and your experience so that rather than being defined by your history you can leverage what you know, combine it with what He shows you is possible, and take a step in a new direction.
God is ready to refresh your life. All you have to do is accept that it is possible, embrace the opportunities that God offers you, and focus on accomplishing the results that God is providing for you every step of the way. There really is a reset button. Jesus is the God of second chances and new life. So, no matter where you find yourself today, you can be born again. You can start in a new direction and take your life to the next level, opening the way to the super-natural blessings, favor, abundance, and eternal life that God has in store.
clarkechols
Thanks for the great encouragement! Even in the second half of life, as I now am, I can see and feel ever more clearly Jesus’ love, support and guidance to a renewed, deeper, more powerful expression of his love being incarnated through me!
clarkechols
Thanks for the encouragement!