Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Welcome to that makes total sense. A podcast dedicated to exploring God's generosity and justice. I'm Alexis. We setting the Christian aiming to ask good questions and encouraging you to do the same. Every one of us is wired by God to live out generosity and justice, but the how sometimes alludes us that makes total sense is a way for us to get together, posture ourselves as learners and challenge one another to practice generosity and justice in a tangible way, every day, happy new year, I was just on a walk with my kiddo and everyone we meet in the neighborhood. Of course, everyone's saying happy new year. One of the older guys, we pass said a happy new year and all that stuff. And I literally just turned the page on my calendar, ripped off December, uh, for the brand new year. And I it's always around this time of year that I start to think again about when we first moved to Houston.
Speaker 1 00:01:10 About 12 years ago, it was after Christmas, right around new year's day. I think in fact that my parents and I actually drove down on new year's day to help move our, then like three week old daughters to Houston, my husband Seth was already here. And at that point we were barely a family of four. And we had just given birth. I had just given birth to our twins who were slightly premature a few weeks before. And it felt like every single thing in our life was new. So of course we had new babies, but we also had a new rental house. It was a new year. As I'd already mentioned, my husband had a new job. He had a new role as employee. He was no longer a graduate student. I had a brand new title of stay at home mom instead of social worker.
Speaker 1 00:02:04 And I had been an employee since I was 15. Um, we had just moved to a new state, a new city, um, in a new state, even our car at the time, uh, that we had used to carry these new babies to their new home. Wasn't that old. It was a pretty new car. Anyway, everything was new. And I remember looking back at pictures of that time. First of all, I just kind of wonder how we even survived. But, um, no one in particular, our puppy who's now 14 I remember was, was in this like makeshift homemade dog bed that she had created. Mr. Seth had helped her put like a blanket inside of a small moving box. And she was trying to make sense of her new home. When I was doing casework that the career that I had held right before all of this newness started in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:02:59 Part of my job was to help assess the stressors in the lives of the families I was assigned to help. So most of the people I worked with during that time were going through easily, some of the most challenging and for many of them, the most traumatic times of their lives. And I often went in and I would perform kind of a triage of sorts, uh, when I would first meet these families, trying to work with them so that we could put pieces together. And, um, together we can make hopefully what would be some, some good decisions or some of the better decisions on how to move forward. But one of the things we did in that process, um, when I would meet with them is we would talk about change. I had a little checklist, um, and I would ask them questions and the questions, a lot of them revolved around what was new or what was different in their lives.
Speaker 1 00:03:54 So some examples were maybe they had experienced job loss or gain. Um, maybe they had had a loss or a death in their family. Uh, maybe there was a new marriage or in some cases, maybe there was a divorce or there had been a break in their relationship. Maybe they had recently moved or started school. Um, we looked at what was gone or what was new or different in their lives. And it's interesting what often came up because a lot of times we would go through this and people would gladly, I'm so thrilled. They would do this. And I think it's a natural thing. A lot of times they would focus on the happy occasions or circumstances that were new in their lives. And they would want to talk about those, which was so great. So maybe they had a new relationship or a new marriage.
Speaker 1 00:04:44 Um, maybe they had a new house or a new job, or they had gone back to school. But when I would mention how these things might be stressful, often they would push back a little bit. No, these are good things. You're not stressful. Right. Um, but that's just it, you know, and, and I realized in my training, I knew it in theory that even good and good new change is hard, right. But when we moved to Houston with all that newness, I experienced it firsthand that these major life changes, cost stress, right? Because change and newness is hard, even when it's fun and good, it's difficult to make the adjustments were being forced to expand and adapt in ways that we haven't had to do before. Um, we're experiencing unfamiliar feelings, right? Our new re routines take some getting used to, and it's just difficult.
Speaker 1 00:05:40 It's difficult because newness and change require growth. And I feel like it's important to remind myself of this, especially in January, like I said, when I just tour the old page off and it was looking at the brand new page of the brand new month of the brand new year, here's the deal. We all know this, nothing really changes except the calendar. Right. But all of a sudden we get these expectations of ourselves and, and maybe of other people too, that, because it's new and different, that something is going to happen overnight. We start to feel like new, the new year has to equal some sort of instantaneous change or we're doing it wrong. Right. But going back to the newness, our family experience, now it's been 12 years ago. I can see that there was nothing instant about it. And that's because there was a whole lot of necessary and beautiful and challenging growth, right?
Speaker 1 00:06:42 Yes. There was the instantaneous change of one day. We were living in one state and the next day we were living in another, but that instant change didn't equal instant change in the deep places in our lives. Right. It took time. It's still taking time in growth. And there are some times when I still feel like I'm adjusting to that move, but that's a good thing because I'm still growing. When I was contemplating all of this recently, I'm just, I'm kind of an internal process or some of you might relate. So I've been thinking about this a lot. And some scriptures came to mind. Um, this, this wording is wording that we all know, but something struck me a little bit about the verbiage. So there's actually a couple places where the Lord is speaking and they sound kind of similar. So the first is in Isaiah chapter 43, when the prophet is expounding on what y'all way we'll do.
Speaker 1 00:07:38 Um, in the second one is Jesus. So this first one in Isaiah chapter 43 is this beautiful word, picture of future restoration. And, um, in the Lord says, do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing. Now it Springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. And then in revelation, John has a vision of Jesus. And in chapter one, um, or sorry, chapter 21, um, this is how it reads. Uh, and the one who is seated on the throne said, see, I am making all things new. Also. He said, write this for these words are trustworthy and true. Then he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end to the thirsty. I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Speaker 1 00:08:39 I just love it. I am about to do a new thing. God says, can't you perceive it. And see, I am making all things new. Jesus says, but I feel like I am catching something. This, that even the newness that the Lord speaks of in these places takes time and growth. I'm looking at this and I'm like, what do we think? The desert, the streams in the desert all about, right? He's bringing the water, the refreshment then nourishment required for the newness to take place. But we know that it's also going to take time for whatever has been planted there to grow. Jesus said he is making all things new, right? He is making it's a process and he's going to give water to, to sustain us and grow us. Uh, those of us who have been so thirsty. So going back to my example of having two babies in tow, when we moved to Houston, it makes me think not just of our new year's expectations, but of our own spiritual expectations too.
Speaker 1 00:09:50 So I'm not sure about you, but the tradition I grew up in for which I'm incredibly thankful, by the way, there are lots of good things in it. Um, but one of the things is that we just use the language that made it sound like once we met Jesus, we, we use the language. Once we get saved, right? Everything about it, everything about us is going to be new overnight, right? We're not going to want to sin anymore. Life's going to be good. We're basically, this is, this is perfection right here, you know? Um, and, and, you know, there's also language. Like we used to sing a little kid song, like he's still working on me. Right. But the practical implications of this, of this language in general was more like what we see advertised at the new year, right? We're turning over a new leaf, we're turning over a new page.
Speaker 1 00:10:34 And we all of a sudden our new, like we snap our fingers and we're new. Jesus has made us new. We're a new creation. Um, but that's not how we really see things modeled in the pages of scripture. Right? So we've already talked about Jesus is making things new. God is bringing these streams to the desert for growth to take place. But one of my favorite places in the gospels is when Nicodemus comes to Jesus in John three, right in the middle of the night, and Jesus explained new life to him using the analogy of birth. Again, going back to the twins, but we say first birth is messy. Ms. Spoiler alert, if you didn't know that, but mostly there's an expectation of growth after birth takes place, right? New babies don't have the experiences or the responsibilities of full grown people. So we don't have the same expectations of them.
Speaker 1 00:11:27 Basically they eat poop, pee, cry, sleep. Sometimes they do smile or laugh or something, but then the cycle just starts over. Right. But somehow when we have a new spiritual revelation, or maybe when we see someone else declare theirs, we expect ourselves to then after this new revelation to act like these fully mature spiritual grown-ups right. We get saved. And now we're, we're a new creation. Yes. And we have this analogy of birth to go with, or we can look at some of the people whose lives really were upended by Jesus, like Peter and Paul are two wonderful examples, right? Peter left everything. He knew and followed Jesus. He had a brand new life experience every single day, but we can see through his example, example, that's recorded in the gospels that his transformation definitely was not instantaneous. He didn't know everything you needed to know.
Speaker 1 00:12:29 He, he couldn't have had those experiences with Jesus in one night. Yes. It took him saying yes and going, and he began his new life, but his transformation took time and experience and being with Jesus, right. Even Paul who had this incredibly dramatic experience on the Damascus road, spent time learning and growing at the feet of other more experienced disciples. Right. Um, the writer of Hebrews uses the same analogy and creating gene believers to go from milk to meat in their maturation process. Right. But it's a process. We don't give a newborn steak and our spiritual formation takes time and experience with the Lord and community for us to mature as well. So anyway, this kind of short hope, it's short and sweet, but really what I want to say to myself. And maybe there are other people who want to hear it or need to hear it.
Speaker 1 00:13:28 Let's not get bogged down on ourselves or others when the new or the new year or expectations. If it's, if it's hard and stressful, whether it's physical newness that comes with a brand new calendar year or a new routine or a new job or a new baby, or if it's spiritual newness that comes with a new revelation from the holy spirit or, or something that, um, has come from our time with him, that is, that feels brand new and wonderful or painful because change can be difficult. And it takes longer sometimes. And we hope it would. Sometimes growing pains are more painful than we anticipated. And we can remember that new is exciting, but just like with my clients and me, we saw in our moves, newness also brings stress, which I'm learning pairs really well with compassion, by the way. So in this new year, maybe we can think about these things together. We can remind ourselves of where we've been in the desert in many ways and where we're headed toward new growth with the one who promises water for our thirsty souls, happy new year. The links for all the resources mentioned in today's episode can be found in the show notes, music and podcast production by Seth B city. Be sure to give us a review on iTunes and subscribe at your favorite podcast listening app, you can also visit us at that. Makes total sense.com
