Happy New Year!

I greet you this way because I feel a “New Year” energy as summer winds down and the new school year begins. I love this time of year! I love learning!

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I still cannot resist going to my local Staples to check out the newly designed binders, tablets, easy-write pens, and composition books. I especially love those big desk calendars that let you fill in all of your plans for every day of the week. A new spiral-bound, hard-backed journal is a pleasure to hold and smell! 

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To mark this new beginning of learning, we’re also accustomed to putting on new clothes. Crisp and a bit scratchy.

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Why do we do this? What is all the newness about?

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I think deep down we want a clean slate for learning new things and becoming better people.

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Is it time again for a clean slate? Is it time for a fresh start to learn something entirely new?

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I’m not talking about acquiring more knowledge though. We are so overloaded with information. When I talk with people who are curious about the Soul Care Institute, I hear them saying, “Something has to change in my life!” 

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Something does have to change. We are so churched, yet we remain largely unchanged! Why is that? Many people wonder if transformation is really possible.

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The Soul Care Institute has been like a “new school year” for many in their spiritual lives because we major on something else - formation that leads to transformation.

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Taking all of that “something has to change” energy typically requires stepping into the future without our “old maps” as Joyce Rupp so beautifully states in her poem.

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Unfortunately, there are those who don’t want anything to change. Don’t let them dissuade you. I was in a group once where someone said, “What if I don’t want to grow? What if I’m happy right where I am?” OK. I’m guessing that if you are that person you would not be reading this reflection.

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Daring to take a new adventure where, instead of looking at what you’ve done before and listening to the cacophony of voices around you, you open your ears to God’s voice and open yourself to the invitation to step onto that different school bus and go to a new school. 

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So what about you? Is it your turn to step into a new year? Would you like to explore what it’s like to enter into a space of formation and become more alive in Christ? You won’t regret it!

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