I’ll never forget, one Sunday in late December 2017, I walked past someone downstairs at church, and in a very smug way this person declared, “2018 - 8 is a number of new beginnings.”

{??…??…}

And as I made my way to where I was going, I smelled the spiritual equivalent of a bad smell.

This person’s words “smelled” off to me. Then I clearly heard the Holy Ghost say, “Nope.” And I knew, right then, that they had their own idea of what God had planned, but unfortunately, God had not gotten the memo.

Everything I sensed in that one, weird, smelly moment came to light less than two weeks later.

Only Living God changes the times and seasons. A year isn’t “new” just because my small human hand can flick the calendar page over. A year isn’t “new” just because there’s a woo-woo number attached to it (how. many. people. proclaimed 2020 as being a year of “perfect vision”, and made their big plans that promptly got upended?). A year isn’t “new” just because grass suddenly gets greener somewhere else, and so I decide I am going to enter a “new season”.

Prophetically, I see much overlap. 2021 is not going to “feel” new…at first. I heard someone else say that just like we can sometimes get snow in spring, 2021 is going to feel like just more of 2020 for a short time.

Because, you see, God doesn’t declare “new” over what we do, for the reasons we do, or in the ways we do. He declares “new” when He is changing an epoch in the history of a nation or city, or when He is giving to a family (birth, marriage, adoption) or He is taking away from a family (death, empty nest)…

…or when there is full-hearted repentance.

Ah. That’s it! Repentance brings new, always. Why does the concept of repentance summon a negative response within us? Who would feel negative about an upgrade, big or small? Do we really want to hang on to outdated or wrong mindsets?

In 2020, we were blessed to do some major renovations in our family’s homes, and in our church home.

Our empty-nest house got a new roof, new gutters and downspouts, a new deck that goes the length of the back of my house, new sliding glass doors, a “new” vintage Preway wood stove, and the list goes on.

The change involved a lot of tearing out the old. It was work. I am sure I cried over some of it, because it was hard on us all. (My daughter Sarah bears a literal scar from wrecking out my old deck with her dad!)

But all this new? Who wouldn’t want it? It’s sweet. It’s good. So good. It’s beautiful. {Other families could get similar results simply by turning loose of clutter. Clear it. Release it. Get rid of all that hinders the sweetness of the space.}

Who does not want fresh, spacious newness?

It’s no different in your spiritual life and mine. We aren’t in charge of when things get “new”, unless we choose for ourselves the fresh, spacious newness of renovating our opinion to line up with God’s design. So if you are really hoping for some fresh “newness” in 2021, be aggressive about finding every single place in your thinking where you can change your mind. That is all repentance is - you thought one way, and you choose to think a completely different way, out of obedience to the will and ways of Living God.

Because ain’t nothin’ new just because I say it is, or because it’s the number “21”, or because I’m turning 50 or 60 or 70, or because I want it to be.