Every Day is New

New beginnings huh? I’m old enough to have had LOTS of new beginnings. Funny thing, you never stop having new beginnings.  I was struck my David’s comment yesterday about how the mercies of God are new every morning.  For me that means that even in the day to day grind something every morning is new – the unfailing, unceasing mercies of the Lord.  I don’t know about you, but I need them.  I found myself humming a song we used to sing in church:

Mercy is falling is falling is falling

Mercy it falls like a sweet spring rain

Mercy is falling is falling is falling

Mercy is falling all over me

Hey-Yo I receive your mercy

Hey-Yo I receive your joy

Hey-Yo I will dance forevermore

 And yes, I love to dance to this song!  You can tune in here and dance if you like.

In May of this year I became a doctoral student.  While I have been working on a degree or going to school now for about 6 years, this is new territory.  Frankly, I’m still scared.  I’m older than most of the people in my cohort.  I have children older than some of them.  I still haven’t gotten used to looks of “what are you doing here?”  They were more blatant at the seminary or during my master’s work at Trevecca Nazarene, never the less, they are there.

One of the women in the cohort mentioned that she had just had her 33 birthday.  I thought yikes!  I’ll be married 33 years in February.  I am soon to be a great-grandmother again.  Should I share this with my cohort? Or will it just accentuate how old I am?

Since May I’ve wondered at times if I could do this.  I even asked myself, what’s the point?  I am old after all.  Besides the absolute joy I have in learning and research, I’ve learned a lot about myself in this experience.  We kicked off this experience with eight days of dorm living.  I’ve never lived in a dorm nor had any great desire to do so – it was good for me.  It was very good for me.  To say I found myself again during this summer is not an overstatement.  I had been lost.  Even I didn’t know who I was anymore.  But just like summer camp, the time away helped me fine myself.

This new beginning gave me new focus on living.  Gave me something to be excited about and to plan around.  While I shuttered when I heard we had to do a 100 entry annotated bibliography, I hit the ground running and had nearly 150 when it was due.  I learned a lot too.  I have a renewed excitement about life and the future.  New  beginnings are like that. 

This is a new year.  I’m old enough to enter into a new year with a bit of trepidation.  As I look back on 2010, it was not an easy year.  I lost my mother.  I saw my plans for education at the seminary fall apart.  I had many other disappointments.  I imagine 2011 will have disappointments as well.  However, I am excited about ushering in the New Year.  As the mercies of God come with every sunrise, I’ll once again know His faithfulness.  I’m ready for the new.  How about you?