seank.mitchell@yahoo.com

Here we are again. It is the start of a new year. The good thing about the New Year is that it is new, a beginning of sorts. Every year around this time it’s as if we get a crash course in hope, hoping that some of the things we don’t like about our lives will change and believing that changing out the calendar on our desks and walls will somehow breed it. Change. Think about that word for a moment. Really—what is change, and is it something we want? Do we really want things around us to be different? Is that kind of change going to do any good?

This past week, over a span of 72 hours, two close family members experienced conflict. Each lives in a different part of the country, both have different jobs, one is a parent and one isn’t. They are different, yet, both encountered something that is universal. No matter where one lives, how much money one has, or how good or bad a person thinks he or she has it, life will have conflict, pain, ups, downs, good people, bad people, happiness, and grief. Change can’t fix any of that. We are stuck with real-life until we aren’t living in it anymore. We aren’t stuck in last year, but we have arrived at a new one, a new sight to behold, a fresh set of days, and the flip of a page in our biographies. And yes, the chapter is once again called Change.

Change what? If real-life is real-life and always will be no matter what or where or through whom, what then is left to change? Us. Surprised? Think about your life, from your earliest memory, up until the memory of what you had for dinner last night. You have been changing all along, contradicting earlier steps in life and building on others. It will happen again this year as well. Sit down and analyze your life lived in the last 365 days, and you will find it. What kind of change do you find? Keep going back in time, back 730, 1460, and 4380 days ago. How are you different? How have your thoughts about God, your career aspirations, and parenting changed? Or, is there any change missing, a change that you regret wasn’t made? Are you starting to think, "I wonder what would have happened had I taken the risk and done that?" The chapter we are living within, remember, is titled Change. There is still time to change.

Back in November, my brother and I were talking about a particular topic, and how great it would be if a book on it existed. We had been dreaming about this book for sometime, half-way entertaining the idea of writing it ourselves, and then, finally: we decided to pursue it. Why not? The book has the potential for strengthening people’s trust in God, and that certainly is a worthwhile cause. Plus, neither one of us wants it to be one of those things we look back on 4380 days from now and wished we had done it while we had the opportunity.

At the end of this project with my brother, whether it sells or not, we will be two changed people. My brother and I will be different as a result of this project because we did it. We will have gone on the journey, and life is about journeying—not about playing it safe, keeping our ships in port, or trying to figure out why the wind blows rather than pitching a sail and letting the wind take us where it pleases.

Something is blowing in your heart. Standing where you are and peering ahead into the horizon of this New Year, something is blowing within you. God is speaking to you. What is He saying? What is He saying to you about prayer, the Bible, the idea you have shelved in the back of your mind, about taking risks and not being afraid? Keep hearing these questions, keep thinking and praying about it all. God is here, in this month, at the start of this year and is giving you a journey. Will you join him there? You will be different if you do and know a little bit more about God too.

Sean K. Mitchell is a fundraising consultant and a creative writer. He is also the author of The Financial Pilgrimage, a book that helps Christians embrace a fresh approach to financial decisions and Christian living. For more information on the book or to contact Sean, visit www.seankmitchell.com.