is it the end or only just the beginning

Happy New Years Eve!

December 31st, 2010 at 8:00 in the evening. In only four short hours, 2010 will cease to exist as we know it. 2011 lay before us, and in this moment I find myself taking some time and looking back on 2010 and all the adventures, tears, joy, sadness, pain, and excitement that it brought with it.

My year started in Indianapolis, Indiana working as a "quote specialist". February brought the promise of something new in the form of California. At the very end of February leading into March I found myself on a plane to San Francisco ready to embark on a journey that I didn't know what exactly I'd gotten myself into. April continued my adventure in Cali, and also brought me back to the normalcy I've always known in Indiana. May took me to the unknown world of New Orleans, Louisiana, and in June and much of July I was in none other than "Lame Deer, Montana". Those few weeks brought with them pain and overwhelming joy. August brought me on a new adventure with a little more stability to a small beach town in Michigan. And here I am, on December 31st sitting in the living room, next to an unlit fireplace in that same little beach town.

This year has brought new light to improperly healed wounds, new memories, and great friends in cities and towns all over the continental United States. And as I look back I see the girl I was, and the one that I am in process of becoming. Tomorrow begins a new year, a fresh start in some respects, and the possibility of so much adventure and excitement. It's the time of year where people look at their life, and wish for a clean slate by making "new year's resolutions" that allow them the opportunity to change eating habits, their spiritual life, or other bad habits that the previous year has permitted. But the truth is, as depressing as this might sound, no matter what you commit to in this new year, some of the damage has already been done. Hurtful words said to a co-worker in anger, a bad mood that permeated existing relationships, a cloud of pain and depression that caused you to ostracize those around you... The effects of our actions are not removed with the changing of the date.

And that's also true about the effects of sin. Praise God that we have a loving and forgiving savior who allows us the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins, he wipes it, removes it, casts it as far as the east is from the west, indefinitely, but the effects of our sin remain. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Actions have consequences- and although we are offered forgiveness, it doesn't remove the words that left our lips, or the scowls that left our eyes. We have to accept responsibility for what we've done, who we've hurt, and who we've become. Don't get me wrong, the year 2011 brings with it much possibility, and I'm not against new year's resolutions per se, but why wait for the change of date to change those things that we see in ourselves that need to be changed? Each day is a new day, and with it the opportunity to be a better person, the new creation that we are called to be.