This post has been quite a while in the making and when I come to write it the words don’t flow like the water from a tap, but there are some drops of inspiration coming forth and I’ll work with that.
New life. Why that topic? What is it all about? Well the reason I wanted to explore the concept and reality of new life is based on a number of things happening in me life that links with the bigger picture that my life fits in.
There is of course the start of the literal new life in the Dryden household and a word on that. God in His wisdom has placed children in the Dryden household at some really interesting times, good or bad, but for all that He really pulled a doozy with this one. The circumstances in which Deborah was born was traumatic and she proved to be a delightful ray of sunshine and grace in the midst of hardship and pain. The circumstance in which Abigail was born was likewise significant in a change in my relationship with God – it felt like a new lease of life with God and her birth symbolised that fresh start even if that did come with some teething pains on the home front.
Yet with no disrespect meant to those wonderful Dryden Daughters the circumstances in which Zoë was born really trumped them both. It’s one thing to have hardship and pain, another to have a new lease of life with some teething pains, stick them together and add onto that a dollop of seismic shifts in the whole way of life for Drydenkind and you have started to get the idea of what the big deal is.
So as we embarked on this new chapter in the Dryden story and as God gave us the honour of seeing another new life enter the world it seemed right to the Holy Spirit and myself to check out what we mean by new life. As I thought about it, I realised that there wasn’t a time that I got the gist of what new life meant as the whole deal. Whenever I heard it was always kind of piecemeal in nature. For some reason it was very much based on external behaviour differences and subsequent judgements were made based on whether people conformed to those standards.
As I ventured further though, and especially as I wanted to get the bigger picture on what we mean when we talk about that, it became clear to me that this would not suffice as a proper, rich, appreciation of what the Bible means by new life.
Then today whilst enjoying the Sabbath I was referred to this sermon by Rob Bell on Resurrection. I’m not a Rob Bell fan and although I’ve used his material for some youth settings when I worked for YMCA, I’m not sold on the guy. I don’t necessarily slam the guy as an out and out heretic as I know others would, but that’s because I pick and choose what’s palatable from him. In any case I heard him out in the sermon without prejudice (as much as any human with opinions hears without prejudice) and found it refreshing, illuminative and indicative as the spur to press on with this series on new life. And if you want to know why that is, then obviously you’ll have to take the time to listen to the sermon for yourself. You can download it as well, so you can listen to it on the go, or whatever.
Unlike the series on March Thru Proverbs and the previous one on The Exit Strategy Interview as well as the series on Law & Order: Spiritual Intent, there won’t be such a stress on getting entries presented on a daily basis. I don’t intend to meander on the subject for months or years at a time interminably – there is a beginning, middle and end to things as there are other series bubbling in the brain to release soon. For the time being though, I’m looking forward to exploring the new life – not just as a blogging exercise, but something very pertinent and instantly applicable to where I’m at in this season.
In the meantime consider these questions. What do you mean by new life? How does the new life contrast with the old life? How do you experience the new life? Is new life a concept reserved for the New Testament or are there Old Testament passages that point to this? Is the new life a personal individual experience? How does it seep into the community life of church?
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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