Old You New You

– ONe day or day one- you decide-

Change is hard. It can be really hard. It can seem impossible.– So impossible that we don’t even try.  Even the thought of change can be so overwhelming that it causes huge anxiety, fear or even sever depression.  Change is scary and upsetting.  There is an underlying negative reaction to  hearing just the word “change.”  Even if you are “up for a change” there is still some apprehension in what may come next. The word ‘change’ creates stress,  so I am making the literary choice to replace that word with “growth.”  “Growth” sounds positive, right?  Growth is getting better- getting stronger- growing up and out in new and fresh ways. Growth is Spring and new birth and fresh starts. 

The other day my husband and I went for a walk near our neighborhood. After several days of rain and cold the sun had come out. The cloudless sky was crystal blue and the air was warm and dry.   The walking path we take  follows a creek and is surrounded by nature’s green and wild bushes on one side with manicured flowers and shrubs on the other.  This particular day, because of all the rain, the creek was bubbling along at a good pace- tumbling and bouncing over the rocks-cleansing itself.  There were some daffodils starting to bloom, and the green was creeping up the banks over winter dirt.  As we walked, a young deer jumped out of the woods and bounded on down the creek bank and out of view.  This sounds all storybook and picturesque, like I am creating some perfect setting for a travel ad for my town.  Right? 

      I swear it is true. I am blessed to live in a beautiful place.

I know you are smart enough to see where I am going with this. Spring–new growth- all is well- happy little flowers.  — Ya’ , you got it.

But I am not giving you the total picture. 

All along this pretty little path there were little bits of trash – plastic bags and soda bottles, paper and other bits of man made throw offs washed up into the brambles on the sides of the creek bank.  Not so much of it that it was the first thing you saw, but enough so that when your really looked you could see it.  Seeing it made me angry.  I thought to myself, and said out loud  “Why do people do that?”  “Here is this beautiful place that volunteers work hard to keep nice and then some idiot throws out their soda can!!” 

So here’s the thing.- Most of that litter  was probably not thrown out right there. It was washed down the creek from somewhere else or blown in by the wind. It wasn’t ‘fresh’ garbage. There were signs of age and distress to it; faded, torn and shabby, dirty and undistinguishable.   –Trash that had been around a while.

Despite it’ s presence I saw the beauty and the freshness of Spring taking hold. The first impressions of this setting was not seeing those bits of trash.  The new growth overshadowed the old garbage.  

Our lives are like that too.  We carry with us lots of trash that is blown in from other sources. We didn’t put it there intentionally, but it is there just the same. Some of it belongs to other people, but we carry it anyway.  Some of it is our own doing and we have carried it with us for a really long time.– So long that we can’t distinguish what it is anymore. We have issues and habits that are so deeply stuck into our life’s brambles that we no longer even see it. — but it is there.  

What trash are you carrying?  Don’t you think it is time to clean it out?  Think how beautiful your scenery will be without the unwanted bits of  garbage, other people’s problems, unhealthy habits, bad attitudes, grudges, hurt feelings, sour relationships, addictions, hate, self doubt, jealousy . . . . . . . .

It is Spring. It is time for GROWTH!   Make the choice to start over, to begin with a fresh outlook. Make the choice TODAY to grow into what God has planned for you. 

Remember when I said that I didn’t see the trash until I looked really hard?  Not everyone sees your garbage.    Our natural goodness has a way of shining through and drawing attention away from all the things we don’t want anyone to know about.  Our new growth will overshadow our old garbage, but it will remain with us unless we choose to clean it up. We all have those things- not one person is a perfect landscape of goodness, but by the grace of God we can grow beyond the waste and refuse.  

How do you start?               

Make the choice.

Decide to be  a new you.

Choose this day to be Day One.