A Year of Renewal
Me. No make-up. Nothing.
Yesterday I turned 41 and one of my favorite gifts is always some time at a spa. I usually get one treatment and then spend the rest of the time drinking hot tea while lounging in the relaxation room reading, writing and sleeping. Yesterday I enjoyed five delightful hours at a hotel spa and it was completely dreamy. Then upon checking out I received the list of suggested products from my esthetician that totaled near the thousand dollar range, had I purchased them all. I didn’t.
Entering a new year of my 40’s has me thinking through the process of aging more than ever before. I am pretty sure I’m not alone, though you may find yourself in a different decade. Even in creation we count the age of a tree by the deeply drawn lines around the center of its trunk. Years of life defined are earned by hard fought growth through the ages. The taller and older the tree, the greater the beauty.
For some reason the standard is vastly different with us, or so it feels.
On a recent road trip with a college friend of mine, we deliberated this very point for 4 hours behind the wheel. We feel the tension with the rest of you. We all long for our youth again, whether in flesh or in spirit. I feel the effects of turning 41 and living a full life. I have long been teased for how my nose crinkles up the wider I smile in pictures and now I can see those lines even when I’m not smiling! Now that is special. I really do want to embrace it as a gift and not try to ignore that the journey of my life never happened, but the struggle is real.
While there is no right or wrong decision with how you choose to view aging or what eating plans you do or don’t do, it is important to anchor our hearts in truth and remind ourselves about lasting renewal so that our minds and hearts are equipped for the journey ahead. The beginning of a new year is a time of focusing on new rhythms, new eating regimens, new goals. My focus this year, as you can probably guess, is to focus on my thought life. What paralyzes and ages me more is what I say to myself inside my head that no one else ever hears or sees.
Last weekend I was reminded of this passage in Mark 8, where Peter is talking to Jesus after He announced that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer and die (fortelling his death on the cross) and as Peter rebukes him, Jesus says clearly in verse 33, “You are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man.”
How can we start investing in the inward renewal of our minds and hearts in the new year?
Set your mind on the things of God, not on the things of this world.
How?
Remember the truth of God’s Word that exfoliates, purifies, and moisturizes the epidermis of our hearts. Read it. Meditate on it. Wrestle with it. Process it with someone. Trust it. Remember the benefits of believing in a living and active and personal God. A God who forgives the things you have done, who knows you fully and loves you completely. A God who is the ultimate healer, powerful redeemer, and rescuing savior. A God who has real and lasting benefits.
In Psalm 103:2-5, we see King David praising God for all of his benefits.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
In this passage, youthful renewal to continue on this journey and enter yet another decade is found in being satisfied with who God is and what He has given. In short, satisfaction + God = renewal. Though speaking entirely to the inward renewal, I think many tend to neglect this part of our anti-aging strategies and new years resolutions. The focus is more on the outward, because that is the part people see and respond to, but at great cost we risk completely ignoring the need for our minds and our hearts to be renewed, so that we can finish this race well.
2 Corinthians 2: 16 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
I invite you to join me in this new year on a journey of renewing our minds and our hearts, to embrace true and lasting beauty, and to press on for another day. It is a daily battle, just like our daily skin care regimen and fitness routine. Forget not the benefits that come from resting in his all-sufficient love and grace. Let’s help each other remember.
Happy New Year friends!
