Already Begun, Part 1

We forget sometimes that the story has already started and we have come into the middle of it.  The Bible, in presenting its genealogies, reminds us that we are works in progress, both as individuals and as parts of God's overall plan.

The story of our lives, my friends, has already begun.

Beginnings lack perspective.  By nature one-dimensional, beginnings carry no weight of history or experience behind them.  A baby, for instance, never having known any challenge or discomfort in its snug pre-born home, thinks he has plenty of reasons to cry.  He is only starting to learn pleasure from pain.  Give him time.  What produces a wail today won't even register on his radar in twenty years.

Our faith lives are the same.
No wonder we call our first look into the face of Christ being born again.

We need to spend time with Christ, too--time to learn, to experience, to trip and fall, to rise and overcome.  And time to know the difference.

We are already on the way.  2012 may be just beginning, but it does so in the middle of our journey, a journey of both years and faith. A new year may present an opportunity to stop an look around for a moment, to get our bearings, but as we do, to notice that the road already stretches behind and beyond.

The real beginning occurred long ago, in the mind of God during His first breath of conception.  Every life stretches forth from that one clear point.  Before we every looked on this world, we took our place in it by virtue of God's sovereign intent.

Only one thing remains--to reach out and grab what God has already conceived.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me—Philippians 3:12b

On this day at the beginning of a new year, our ongoing life story does not begin, or even begin again.  It continues with resolute steps toward Christ.

And now that we have found our first place, He has more.
See Part 2