Word Weld

The new year is upon us once again, and this will not be my typically article: Long and involved. I just wanted to touch at this time of year upon the concept of newness and how we as human beings need it so desperately. There is a balance in life between the comforts of routine and the freshness of something different. Life has equal measures of both: long months of routine rising in the morning, working at home or at a job, doing daily housework, chores, events, followed by occasional bursts of change, which we often view negatively.

In fact, we view it all negatively.

We groan at the mundane aspects of our lives. When our alarms go off in the morning, or the clock says 5:00 PM when we’re at the office, or it’s time to pick up the kids from school, or it’s (shudder) time to make dinner, we sigh. Another hum drum day at the office, another day preparing food for people, or watching kids, or teaching, or pounding nails, tapping keys, etc. It’s our boring life, and the majority of our life at that.

Then there are the abnormalities of life. We all experience sudden, unexpected changes. You might lose a job, get sick, be injured, lose a friend, and so many other things. Some of them affect you for a few minutes or a day, while some change an entire aspect of your life… permanently. We often view these changes negatively as well, and indeed many of them are inconvenient or grievous.

But our routines and our changes are good. Our routine may get dull or repetitive, but it is a foundation that we need. What we do for most of our time will become our routine, and if we were rich and had all the time in the world, then “partying” and “playing” would be our routine, and we would constantly be searching for some new way to party or play, or we might even consider going to work. And that is why our routine is so important a foundation: our regular routine should be something repetitive that is in some way meaningful over time. If our routine is a job outside the home, then it may get dull, but it provides the funds we need to feed and house ourselves or our families, and there is nobility in the gray mass that constitutes the largest portion of our lives. If we’re doing housework, keeping kids healthy and safe, and managing family affairs during that gray mass, then that can be a satisfying aim. This gray foundation can become dull or boring, but it is also comfortingly familiar and over time becomes easy as we get better at it through repetition.

And that’s when we need the anomalies. Scattered throughout the gray mass should be splashes of color. These are the changes that enter unexpectedly or expectedly into our lives. They shake up the routine, or sometimes alter it altogether. And as bored and disillusioned as we get with the gray area of our lives, the idea of changing that routine can be frightening and we can resist it. For 10 years I worked a job that provided well for our family, and I got good at it over the years, but my boss was not a good boss and there were many inconveniences, and the lack of any room to grow. So when I got a call offering a new job in a slightly different industry, one would have thought I would have jumped at it, but instead I recoiled. This was new. I would have to take a different route to work every day, work in a different building with different people, and I wouldn’t be good at my job for a while. All of a sudden the gray area seems less dull and lifeless but rather comfortable and homey. I took the job, and I didn’t regret it. Some day this job too will be mundane, as time goes on, and I may have to get another one. Things will change, and I will be better for it. The changes should not be the norm, but they should never stop altogether (and they won’t, because life is no respecter of persons). Change is about growth, and growth is uncomfortable. Things break when you grow, like a crab’s shell, and you feel discomfort and even pain, but in the end you can stretch out and do more and different things, and be better for it.

We need to be renewed from time to time by those splashes. Sometimes they’re hard, like the loss of a loved one, a car accident, a severe illness, or an injury. But even in those times, we have to grow. Those are things that happen to all people in life. As the great King Solomon said in his musings:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. – Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

While experiences may be new for us in life, they have come upon all men at one point or another. God is constant, but mortal life is mercurial, shifting, and unpredictable by human means. That is why we must cling to our faith in God at all times, because even more than our routines, God remains constant. He allows our lives to go through times of growth, loss, and struggle but He goes through it with us, always the same, like a child walking through the woods with his hand in his father’s. The path changes, there are climbs, and there are descents, there are stubbed toes and streams to cross, but the Father is always there with His hand upon ours. As James said:

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. – James 1:2-4

Notice those words at the beginning of verse 4, that we often read over so quickly: “let patience have her perfect work.” When the changes come, be patient. You will be made new. As the familiar verse continues our thought:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31

Notice the correlation to James. “Let patience” in James 1 corresponds to “wait upon the Lord” in Isaiah 40. And the “perfect work” and “wanting nothing” in James 1 corresponds to “they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” in Isaiah 40. Perfect symmetry and consistent messaging on either end of the Scriptures. We need to renew our strength daily, by prayer and reading of the Word, and pondering upon God. We need to our strength weekly through our days of rest, and fellowshipping with other believers at church. We need to renew our strength monthly through regularly scheduled colorful activities, like date nights, family fun nights, outings, and visits with family and friends. And we need to renew our strength yearly, not necessarily at New Years, but why not? Why not on January 1st tell yourself: let’s start something new in our home, something we haven’t done before, something that will deliberately alter our routines, and change the hue of our gray mass for the year?

And don’t run from those changes that come “out of the blue,” as it were. You can’t anyway. Feel the hurts that come, but give God the Glory, and trust in Him. He will care for you.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. – I Peter 5:7

Those hard changes will help you grow if you don’t fight against them. And as you go into the new year, try to actively bring changes into the gray areas of your life, not just to spice things up, but to help you stretch and grow upward and outward. Rearrange your house, exercise more, smile more, eat better, be kinder, be a better listener, be slower to anger, be more thoughtful, consider God more often, reach out to an estranged family member, pray more, tickle your kids more, kiss your spouse more often. We tend to slide backward, so if you want to go forward you have to be intentional about it. You may fail in time, but that’s ok. You will be renewed again, and whatever positive changes you make will still be worth doing. You never know what may happen in a year, but you’ll grow, if you embrace change and newness and hang on to the one constant that will never fail you: God Himself.