It’s something new: a new relationship, a new job, a new home, a new city, a new child, a new start, a new beginning. When we start something new, there’s excitment and anticipation. Family and friends congratulate us. They are happy for us. How wonderful!
When we are in the midst of a new beginning, there is something exciting. The future is unknown and full of opportunities. Because the future is unknown, we pin many hopes on the possibilities that could come in the new beginning.
At the same time, the future is really unknown. We can’t be sure what problems we will face or what disappointments will come our way. There is uncertainty. There is also the loss of what was old and what will be missed from life before the new beginning. It won’t be the same as it was. There is adaption to what is new with different routines or patterns or places to explore.
In the six weeks following Easter, Christians mark the Easter Season by exploring new beginnings – the beginnings of life following the resurrection of Jesus. The familiar stories of Jesus appearing to his friends and followers are not new to us. Because they are old stories for us, we miss what the friends and followers of Jesus didn’t know: that something new had started and that life was different from how it had been. As they move into the new beginning, they are confused and can’t make sense of what’s happening around them. How else could it be? Is it exciting? Perhaps. But it’s also disconcerting and frightening.
I am in the midst of a new beginning. On Easter Sunday, I began the physical move from my home in St. Louis with my family to a new home in Atlanta. Eight days later after Easter, we arrived in the new Atlanta house with the challenge of making it a home. Eight days. So much occurred that it seems as though living in St. Louis was an eternity ago! Many things were predictable: there was confusion about the movers, complications with the closing on the new house, and challenges finding things when we needed them. There were also unpredictable things, like driving through the Mid-West during a week of heavy storms marked by record breaking tornadoes. Now, in the new house, it’s unpacking and sorting, trying to find a repair service for the refrigerator, looking for a store that carries particular products, thinking about the possibility of attending a new church on Sunday. Yes, it’s all new. There is hope and promise but there’s also confusion, frustration, and exhaustion. All of these experiences are part of moving into something new.
It’s tempting to label the hope and promise as “good” and the confusion and frustration as somehow “bad.” However, these value judgements are misleading. Instead, there is a range of experiences that make up the process of a new beginning. All of the experiences call us to be the people we were made to be. For example, in learning to find new places to shop, I need to be mindful of my surroundings in particular ways. I can’t depend on old routines. Instead, I need to focus my attention on what’s occuring around me in that moment. While my tendency is to prefer the comfort of routine and look forward to having it once again, in fact the attention to detail and mindful focus are a positive spiritual practice that opens me to appreciate the newness of things around me. It’s all part of the transition into something new.
New beginnings: the future is unknown. That’s the excitement. But the unknown also causes us apprehension. If we live into the unknown and embrace it, we can be opened by the process to experience life in ways we hadn’t thought possible in the past.