On New Beginnings

In four days I will once again be moving, from south Florida to Columbia, SC. Though excited to be moving home, to be closer to family, and to finally begin my long anticipated goal of starting law school, I will not leave south Florida without some sadness - saying goodbye to friends (both new and old), retiring from one of the most trying and yet rewarding jobs of my life (running a small roofing business), and leaving the warm, cordial, hospitable and welcoming displaced Yankees that have overtaken every building department, municipal governments, neighborhood and construction related company in south Fla. Actually, no, I'll only miss the friends and Meyer's Pride.

I always look forward to fresh starts and new beginnings - they are sort of like life's version of a new year, a chance to wipe your slate clean and start afresh. Likewise, I generally approach these new experiences with new resolutions and goals - things I wish I had done in the chapter of life that just ended, and which I hope this new chapter will allow me to accomplish.

To continue with the "book of life" analogy, I often find myself thinking that the first few chapters of my book were solid - well written and full of promise for the later chapters. But the more recent "chapters" have lacked the quality that I had earlier anticipated, and i'm left hoping that the book gets better soon.

Apparently C. H. Spurgeon encountered similar sentiments, and today's Morning and Evening devotion is both reassuring, timely and challenging:

"Numbers of Christians can view the past with pleasure, but regard the present with dissatisfaction; they look back upon the days which they have passed in communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have ever known, but as to the present, it is clad in a sable garb of gloom and dreariness. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they have wandered from him, and they say, “O that I were as in months past!” They complain that they have lost their evidences, or that they have not present peace of mind, or that they have no enjoyment in the means of grace, or that conscience is not so tender, or that they have not so much zeal for God’s glory. The causes of this mournful state of things are manifold. It may arise through a comparative neglect of prayer, for a neglected closet is the beginning of all spiritual decline. Or it may be the result of idolatry. The heart has been occupied with something else, more than with God; the affections have been set on the things of earth, instead of the things of heaven. A jealous God will not be content with a divided heart; he must be loved first and best. He will withdraw the sunshine of his presence from a cold, wandering heart. Or the cause may be found in self-confidence and self-righteousness. Pride is busy in the heart, and self is exalted instead of lying low at the foot of the cross. Christian, if you are not now as you “were in months past,” do not rest satisfied with wishing for a return of former happiness, but go at once to seek your Master, and tell him your sad state. Ask his grace and strength to help you to walk more closely with him; humble yourself before him, and he will lift you up, and give you yet again to enjoy the light of his countenance. Do not sit down to sigh and lament; while the beloved Physician lives there is hope, nay there is a certainty of recovery for the worst cases."