So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! —2 Corinthians 5:17
What new thing is God doing in and through your life at the start of this new year?
I picked up playing guitar when I was 15, learning a few chords and playing by ear. I never took guitar lessons. YouTube didn’t exist. It was all observing what other guitar players did, listening to indistinguishable parts of songs over and over, and stumbling upon the right chord every now and then. That, and years of practice and experience, became my skill level. I would always be a mediocre guitar player at best.
Then came the pandemic. Ruthie, our daughter, was 12 years old. She loved to sing. Her voice filled the stagnant isolation, encouraging me to pick up my six-string and play along with her. When I did, that serendipitous dynamic gave us so much joy that we decided to go live on Facebook and Instagram, sharing at least one new song we had learned each week for whoever was out there listening and watching.
The challenge for me came with the fact that Ruthie liked singing music that was outside my wheelhouse. She wanted me to play stuff by artists like The Cardigans, Norah Jones, and Liana Flores, who use jazz chords and other ridiculous fingerings that my novice-trained hands could barely execute. She insisted that I learn songs by Lizzy McAlpine, Eliza McLamb, Metric, and The Smiths, who often retune the guitar’s strings from its standard tuning (E, A, D, G, B, E, as God intended) to “open G” and “open D,” which I’d never done before, and which also forced me to learn the bizarre chords to play in those unorthodox tunings.
But I did it. I didn’t think my set-in-stone method of playing guitar would ever be stoked to do anything new, nor capable of pulling it off. Yet, with a nudge from my daughter, some help from YouTube tutorials, banging my head on the desk in frustration, and lots of practice, I made a new sound.
Now, I’m still not much better than a novice, but playing music with Ruthie has taught me that I can do new things. It’s encouraged me to look at this New Year with hopeful anticipation for newness that I previously assumed was impossible. And it’s got me thinking with fresh perspective about the gift of faith I have; faith that Jesus says may be the size of a mustard seed, appearing feeble and meager, but harnessing the power to move mountains. Beloved, you have that gift.
I was baptized when I was 14. I had a vague concept of what I was doing. Every year since I made that public profession of faith—devoting my life to following Jesus wherever and however the unorthodox encourager might lead me—I have learned new things about the implications of discipleship and tried to apply them to how I carry myself in this world.
Faith never ceases to amaze me. The more I practice it—listening for God’s still-speaking voice, learning the transcendent teachings of Jesus, following the movement of the Holy Spirit instilled in me—the more my doubts from yesterday about what is possible are outshined by today’s assurance that I am always a new creation, and God is not through with me yet.
So, Beloved, what new thing is God doing in and through your life at the start of this new year? The weary world around you is waiting for your answer. And, all the while, each new day, Jesus is saying to you and me, “Follow me.”
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