A new beginning?

January 1st.  A day of new gym subscriptions, new dieting plans, new commitments to family and friends -- a perfect day for new beginnings. Or is it?

For millions of people, January 1st marks a chance to "start fresh." People are eager to shrug off the weight of all of the mistakes of the past year, to begin again without all of these burdens on their backs.

But that doesn't work for me. I can't always wait for January 1st to be my "new beginning" because I need a new start way more than once a year. In fact, I need a new start every single day.

In Lamentations (the title literally means "funeral song"), we read the words of a distraught man who found hope in his God alone. One of the most famous sections of this Old Testament book is found in Lamentations 3:22-24; 

 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

God's mercies aren't new once every 365 days; they're new every morning. 
 

Every day is a new day. We don't have to walk around carrying the weight of yesterday's mistakes. In Christ, those mistakes are gone -- forever. Each day is a chance to start fresh, to have a new beginning. We aren't slaves to the things we did yesterday, last week, or last year. We are free. So give and live 2014 in freedom.

 
On a bit of a side note, tomorrow marks the beginning of my year without buying any clothing that is not fair trade. I would like to humbly ask you to please like, comment on, and share my posts -- not so that I can get glory from this. I don't want it. What I do want, though, is for people to see that there are fair trade alternatives out there when it comes to buying clothing. I want people to know that they are not, if you will, "slaves" to the corrupt trade practices that plague our markets. I want them, and I want you, to feel empowered to make a difference in the lives of thousands of men, women, and children who need to be paid fair wages.

The true power of this blog rests in your hands - the reader's hands. You guys are the ones who can truly make a difference by spreading the word and by making small choices in favor of fair trade. Please help me spread the word.

That's all I have to say for now. See y'all next year!

A small Christmas

This year, Christmas is going to be "small" at my house. Come Christmas morning, the wood floor beneath the tree is not going to be overflowing with piles of perfectly wrapped packages. There will be a humble little stack just big enough to be enjoyed by five. And that's perfectly fine.

You see, when it comes down to it, my family doesn't need all that much. In fact, we don't really need anything that we don't already have. We each have a warm bed to sleep in, we have food on the table, and we have a house full of people we love. And yet, commercial after commercial comes on TV telling us just how much we need.

I think that the word "need" desperately needs to be redefined by Americans - including me. We say we need all sorts of stuff that we could easily go without. One of my good friends, Caleb, is really keen on catching my misuse of the word. We'll be driving to church, and I'll say something dumb, such as, "I need a new phone."

He takes his eyes off the road for a second, looks at me, raises an eyebrow. "Need?" he says dryly.

I give an annoyed little huff. "No, but I want one."

"I thought so."

During this time of year, everyone is telling us that we need a new TV, a new diamond necklace, a new pair of boots, a new everything and anything. In reality, we don't need any of those things. Sure, we want them, and that's perfectly fine in proportion. And we want to give these things to people that we love, which is also fine. I just think that we tend to put too much emphasis on all of these material things that will never even last.

Jesus said, "“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21). This isn't a super spiritual passage -- it's just Jesus being logical. Things here on earth won't last. Period. Either they will get destroyed, or we will.

But this doesn't mean that we shouldn't buy thoughtful, meaningful gifts for each other. Please, buy nice things for the ones that you love -- just don't let the emphasis be on the thing. Let the emphasis be on the love. The present will one day be gone, and then all that will remain is love.

This year, I'm going to spend Christmas with my family, not with a mountain of stuff that I don't need. I'll treasure the few gifts I get because I will know that they were carefully picked out with me in mind. In a world where I am already so easily distracted by all the stuff that I do or don't have, by all the stuff that I supposedly need, I'm thankful for a chance to have less stuff and to have more love.

Freedom in Christ - a real reason to rejoice.

About a year and a half ago, I realized for the first time that I had spent the first 16 years of my life living as I slave.

Born and raised in a Christian home, I never gave a second thought to the idea that things might not be all peachy. I had Jesus, and figured that I just had to follow this list of rules, and boom - super Christian. What I failed to realize, though, is that I was making myself a slave to the very set of rules that I thought would set me free.

The thing is, no matter how hard I tried to mind my p's and q's and be the perfect little Christian that I thought I was supposed to be, I couldn't. I failed -- a lot. The weight of the world was on my shoulders, and I kept letting it all crash to the ground.

Then, I got involved with Eight Oaks. As I prayed for the freedom of eight little girls who were in slavery in Ghana, Africa, I took a step back and started to really look at what freedom in Christ even meant. It was a term that I had heard before, but it was not one that I had yet experienced. I prayed every week that those girls would someday get to laugh  and sing and dance and be free in Christ, but nobody had ever told me to laugh and sing and dance in the freedom of Christ.

Eight little girls taught me everything I know about freedom while they were still slaves. I have learned so much from those precious little girls over the past year and a half.

I have learned to live in freedom by learning to rejoice in the promises of God. He has told me that I am a new creation, and I believe him. He has told me that I am free from sin and death, and I believe him. No longer is following Christ about following a list of rules; rather, it is about loving he who first loved me, and then living my life completely for him -- a life overflowing with joy.

I still mess up. A lot. But I rest in the assurance that the grace of God is enough. I can mess up, and I will mess up. That's just the way it is. But I am free from all guilt and condemnation through the precious of blood of Jesus Christ. I am free to mess up and make mistakes, and I rest in the fact that God can never love me any less.

Jesus loves me, he has saved me from myself, and in the end, everything is going to be alright. My God will win, and I will be with him forever. There's nothing I can do to screw that up. That is freedom, and that is something to celebrate.

Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So laugh until your stomach hurts, sing at the top of your lungs, dance like nobody's watching, and live in the freedom that is found in Christ alone.