a rewrite

To begin again. To stare afresh at the blank page. A fresh start with new words and fresh mercies. To rewrite the story is to boldly pick up the pen again, laying aside what was behind and starting fresh with the new. Paul gave us this charge from a prison cell.
"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," (Philippians 3:12-13).
Everyone's story could always stand some rewriting. There are trials we would have preferred to avoid. There are pits we have dug that we prefer to never have even held that shovel. There is pain that entangled our hearts that would have been better to skirt. But the reality is those made us who we are and the rewritten story will always have a climax, twists and gorgeous resolutions that draw praise from the hearts of redeemed sinners.
Now we stand on the cusp of a pivot, of a rewrite of sorts. Having lived in a quarantine, a season of blank calendars and cancelled plans has left us disappointed, bored, and fidgety. We hope there is a newness coming. Fresh starts with a blinking cursor that await new challenges. What awaits us in the post-Covid world? Will we, like Paul, take up the mantel of fresh mercies that compel us to "press on towards the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?" (Philippians 3:14)
For what would any other rewrite be worth? Isn't it all for His glory and His purposes anyway?
The winding up in cords of plans and demands of schedules and the pace of distraction was only tangling us up as the enemy drew us further from our families, our callings and our Master. We let distraction run the show and wondered why we were too numb to applaud, glazed over by weariness and frenzy. Time to rewrite that screenplay.
Paul goes on to challenge those who are mature in Christ to think as he does and allows the conviction to fall from God's hand into the hearts of those who are still floundering in the waves of social media, Netflix and nonsense. He punctuates the point with "only let us hold true to what we have attained." So what is it that you and I have attained over the course of this season? Will be choose to emerge with a new turn in the story, a fresh plot ahead that finds us with our eyes wide open and fixed on His face and a bold new charge to press forward in the name of Jesus our Lord.