Have you ever just wanted to pick up and move to a new town
or city where no one knows you: where you can get a fresh start; where you can
remake yourself; where you can start with a clean slate? Many people do just
that. They pick up and move. For many it can be a leap of faith of sorts.
Moving without a job or a place to live. For others it has been long in the
making, much preparation has gone into a new beginning. Some are very successful. They take the
opportunity of a fresh start and run with it. They intentionally choose a
different path than the one they left behind. A healthier, happier path. One
that involves doing the hard work that they have avoided in the past. Others
are not so successful. They bring their old habits and hang ups with them. They
choose to seek out the same unhealthy relationships with people that pull them
backwards instead of forward. They choose to repeat past patterns that land
them in the same misery they experienced in their previous community. Their
fresh start, their clean slate ends up dingy and dirty after only a short time.
Is there really the possibility of a clean start? Can we
just move to a new locale and magically become a different person? The short
answer is, "No."
We bring all of our emotional, spiritual, relational baggage
with us wherever we go. Until we deal with those issues and even when we do, we
cannot be magically wiped clean.
There is one person who can wipe at least one part of our
past clean. Jesus Christ can give us a clean slate in regards to the punishment
for the sins we have committed. Through him we find healing. "But he was
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5, NIV). That
being said, he cannot do the hard work for us of processing and healing from
past abuses, from old wounds, from pain inflicted by our fellow man. We have to
do that. The good news is that he will walk with us each step of the way helping
us to keep moving forward.
So a clean slate, a fresh start without any baggage, that
magically happens? No. A second chance, sins wiped clean, hope? Yes and Amen! A
new life, a new direction, a path to healing and wholeness? Absolutely! Found
in the journey of following Christ, one step at time. A journey that may not be
easy or quick but worth every drop of sweat, worth every tear shed. Why? To
become a person shaped by their past but not controlled by it. A person who
embraces who they are and strives to be who they are continuing to become. A
person who looks beyond themselves and grasps the divine. That is the type of
clean slate, I want.
What baggage are you carrying around today that is keeping
you from going a new direction? What are you reaching for today?
