Same New, Same New

We all get tired of the “same old, same old.” Whether you’re in a job where you do the same thing hour after hour, day after day, or you’re retired and you get stuck in certain routines, or out of habit you eat the same thing for breakfast every day, the same old, same old can get pretty, well, old.

Sometimes we can feel that way in our spiritual walk with Christ. Reading the Bible every day can feel like it gets old. Getting through chapter upon chapter of Leviticus or Job is tough slogging and reading these and other parts of the Bible doesn’t always feel very spiritual or spiritually renewing.

Going through the liturgy in worship Sunday after Sunday can sometimes feel like you’re just going through the motions rather than really worshiping.

But there is something that is coming around that is just the ticket for us. It is Lent. True, we go through this every year. Every Spring in the Church Year Lent comes around and it can seem like the same old, same old.

Lent itself can seem rather dreary and dull. All the talk of repentance and rending your heart and not your garments. All the focus on our guilt and the need for spiritual discipline. This isn’t exactly the stuff of excitement in our walk with Christ.

So when it seems like we’re stuck in the same old, same old, what do we do? How can Lent help us out here?

Though Lent does have an emphasis on guilt and repentance it is for the very purpose of renewal and being spiritually uplifted. How this happens is through that very process of repentance.

And that’s one of the reasons why we go through Lent year after year. Repentance is something we need to go through day after day. Even if it seems like the same old, same old, what actually is occurring is the new.

Repentance is an actual dying. It is dying to the world and the sinful flesh. What springs forth is renewal, new life in Christ each day.

That’s the way it is with Christ. It is always the same but always new. Life in Christ may seem like the same old, same old, but it’s actually the same new, same new.

His love for you is always the same. His forgiveness is always the same. The blood He poured out on Calvary is the same blood given to you often in His Holy Supper.

With Christ it’s always the same. And that’s a good thing.