A Brand New Day
Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24 (NLT)
It was a morning, much like today, beautiful and ushering in a week reminding us of fresh starts. Reminding us that a new season was in full bloom. A line had been drawn from winter, and spring had sprung. And also ushering in March Madness.
March Madness—with all its mayhem, memories, and magic—wrapped up in the childhood dreams of the players from sixty-eight of the very best collegiate basketball teams across the country who will be laying it all on the court with the hopes of reaching that one shining moment when they will be proclaimed National Champions. Only one will make it to that one shining moment, but all will have a chance. All will have a fresh start. A new day. A brand new perspective.
And for Lynda’s Mother this was always a special time of year, not necessarily for the basketball, but because it was just one more time she could root for one of her grandchildren. Even though she couldn’t see the television screen that clearly in her last few years with us, it didn’t diminish her passion to watch her Duke Blue Devils—the alma mater of her precious Grandson, our son, Nathan—as they started afresh on their postseason run in basketball and tried to reach that one shining moment. Today, now that Nathan also has his MBA from the University of Florida, and with Head Coach Billy Donovan a dear friend, Mother is no doubt rooting with equal vigor for the University of Florida from her seat in Heaven above.
It is a fresh start on the season for sixty-eight teams which our then-brand-new daughter-in-law Amy discovered years ago. She suffered from a bit of a sports-deprived background. The examples in support of that statement are too numerous to mention here; but she never understood what all the excitement was about at this time of year, until she and our son were married and she was caught up in this annual pilgrimage into a world of hysteria and magic while watching a first round triple overtime thriller with him during their first year of marriage.
“Do they do this every year?” she exclaimed breathlessly. Remember, a very deprived sports background. Yes, Amy, every year—a new start—what happened during the long season is over. Anyone now can win it all.
March Madness. It’s a brand new day to draw a line in the journey of our life, leaving the past where it belongs and starting afresh and anew. It’s a new day to reach again for the unreachable, for following dreams, all the way perhaps to that one shining moment. And along the way experiencing many shining moments. And it happens every year.
I wonder if you’re at all like me. Not from the standpoint of scheduling my calendar to watch this once-a-year moment of basketball madness. Maybe that, too. But I wonder if you’re like me in finding that every now and then you need a chance at a fresh start. Perhaps you find yourself standing on the edge of a valley that looks a bit daunting, afraid to step out. Or you’re facing a mountaintop that seems beyond your ability to climb. We’ve all been there. Perhaps you’re coming out of a period of illness, or have experienced a family member having left you, leaving you empty and groping for a light in the darkness. Perhaps all that you have always dreamed you would be is still out in front of you, seemingly out of reach.
We’ve all been there. We may be there now. And we all have some choices. We can stay there—or we can realize that it’s a new day. We can stay there—or not. We can stay where we are, perhaps not recognizing that tomorrow it will be the past, or we can realize that the past is the past, and today is what matters. We can stay on the edge of that valley, and never move. We can look up at that mountain, and never take the first step upward. We can stay in the darkness, and never find the light. And we can just keep dreaming about what we might have been.
Or, we can embrace the gift of the new day, and draw a line separating the past from this moment of today. The moment of a brand new day, and a fresh start. We can leave the past where it belongs and embrace a brand new season by taking that first step through the valley, up the mountain, into the light, reaching for that one shining moment to be all that we dreamed we would be.
We may not get there, we may not get as far as we had hoped, we may not even get out of the first round of the tournament. But we certainly won’t get anywhere by staying where we are now.
We’ve all been there. The question is where will we be tomorrow?
Reach for all you can be and step out into this—a brand new day!
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2011. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
