The Hope of a New Season

Sing along with me:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Football is starting and

Hockey is starting and

Baseball’s in high gear!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Let all of your senses take in the joy that is around you. Can you smell it? It’s the smell of hope.

As of today, every team in the National Football League is even. The Chiefs may be returning Super Bowl champs, but they have the same record as the New York Giants. My Chicago Bears are tentatively looking forward to moving up a notch this year. Who knows? They could be really good!

That’s the beauty of a new season. Anything is possible! Every football fan can look forward to the possibility that this could finally be your year. Well, except for Dallas Cowboys fans, you are destined to be crushed once again…

Have you entered a new season in your life? Do you wake up every morning in anticipation of what God can do in you, for you, and through you? Or do you wake up with dread, fear, and pain? Every day is a new season, a chance to achieve greatness in our spiritual lives.

How do we do that? We need to remember that yesterday ended at midnight. Yesterday’s victories, defeats, joys, and hurts don’t have to follow us into the next day.

Oh, sure, we can continue to wallow in our pain. We can try to live off the blessings we had yesterday. Neither of those choices are best for us, though.

We need to face each day like the Apostle Paul, who wrote:

Philippians 3:13-14

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

I love that verse! Whatever happened yesterday, today is a new day. It is a new season for us to thrive and strive!

Trust me, I know how hard it can be to be upbeat about what happened, or didn’t happen, yesterday. What is bringing me out of the wilderness I have struggled through in the last few months is that God still loves me, and His love is enough to help me start a new season every day.

Now, if the Bears can just get out of their wilderness…