Something New - New Evangelizers

January.
Just the mere mention of it brings forth images of dark mornings, cold days, ice and snow (at least for those of us living in the Northeast.) Regardless of your climate, January means an end to the holidays and festivities of December. Houses are stripped of their lights and decorations, diets have begun, family has gone home and everyone has settled back into the ho-hum of everyday life.

 Same old, same old is the way I would describe my January so far. My kids are back into their homeschooling routine and in doing my mid-year assessment of where we are vs. where we should be, I was dismayed to find out that summer vacation is a long, long way off, both from a calendar perspective and a work-load perspective. The scale tells me I had a few too many cookies during Christmas vacation and I can’t seem to get my house back in order after the holidays (yes, we are the only house on the block with Christmas lights still on.) To say my mood is less than ideal would be an understatement – is it SAD, or a case of the winter-blues, or a lack of exercise and fresh air? Who knows for sure? What I do know is that “same old, same old” and “ho-hum”, and “blah, blah, blah” run in direct opposition to the Good News that God reveals about himself in the Scriptures. And when my life runs in direct opposition to that Good News, I know it is time to hit the reset button, spiritual speaking.

Last Saturday while spending some much-needed time in Adoration, I picked up my Bible and turned to one of my favorite scriptures – one I am especially fond of when the going is not so great – Isaiah 43. This time, however, I read a little further than I normally do and came to this passage: “See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth – do you not perceive it? In the wilderness, I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.” (Is 43:13)

The power of the words immediately jolted me out of my funk. “See I am doing something new! Do you not perceive it?” I felt like the Lord was asking me the question directly – both challenging me and inviting me to take the blinders off my eyes and see what He was doing in my life. My mind played over the areas of my life that I perceive as a challenge – the frustrations I feel, the fears I have – the wilderness that makes me wonder if I am just covering the same ground over and over again without any real progress. In that wilderness, the Lord assured me that he was making a way – “do you not perceive it?” I saw the struggles of my own sin, shortcomings, and failures that can often seem like a barren wasteland – with little hope of growth and change – and I heard the Lord whisper to my heart: “I am making a river – do you not perceive it?”

In Revelation 21:5, the Lord says: “Behold, I make all things new.” St. Augustine, in his Confessions, addresses the Lord saying: “O beauty, ever ancient, ever new.” In Christ, there is always something new – a new grace, a new hope, new life. The dark, gray days of January do not diminish that – nor do the dark seasons of our life – seasons of illness, grief, loss, fear, doubt. I left the chapel asking the Lord for the grace to perceive the “new thing” that he is doing in my life – a perception, I know, which can only be received as a gift from God himself. I also left with a sense of peace and gratitude – that even if I cannot yet perceive it – God is doing something new!

What is the new thing God is doing in your life?

Copyright 2016, Deborah Gaudino

Deborah Gaudino

Debbie Gaudino is a Child of God, happily married to her husband Anthony and a homeschooling Mom to their two children. She serves as the Executive Director for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Diocese of Trenton and is currently a Theology Graduate student at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Read her reflections on "striving for the heights of holiness in the trenches of everyday life" at Saints 365.