January 19: Something New Is Springing Up
Your past keeps replaying in your head like a film you can’t turn off.
““Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
God spoke these words to people in exile. They had good reason to look back. Their failures had brought them to Babylon. Their glory days were long gone. And God said: don’t remember the former things. Don’t keep dwelling on the old. Look, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Don’t you see it?
He even said He would make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Not after the wilderness was gone. In it.
Step One asks you to look honestly at the past. That can seem to clash with this verse. But there’s a difference between looking at the past and living in it. Step One looks back long enough to tell the truth: drinking beat me, and my life got unmanageable. Then it turns forward, because that truth is the doorway into everything else.
What doesn’t help is replaying the past over and over as a punishment. Rehearsing every failure. Imagining every conversation where people talk about what you did. That kind of looking back keeps you stuck in exile. It can even become a reason to drink, because the replay is so painful.
God’s promise here is not that the past didn’t happen. It’s that the past is not the only thing happening. Something new is already springing up. A sober morning. An honest conversation. A meeting where someone shook your hand. These are the first green shoots in a dry place.
You may not be able to see it yet. That’s why God asks, “Don’t you see it?” Sometimes we need to be told where to look. Look at today. Look for one small thing that wasn’t there a month ago.
The wilderness is real. So is the road God is building through it.
One thing today
When an old memory replays today, say this out loud: “That happened. God is doing something new now.” Then name one new thing.
A prayer
God, I keep living in what I’ve done. Thank You that You’re doing something new, even here. Open my eyes to see it, and help me walk the road You are making.
Back to the honest start of Step One.
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