A New Season

I swear I have an "I'm starting again" blog post about every six months or so . . . . I really need to be better at this.

Lately I've been thinking about new seasons in life. During the school years it seemed that new beginnings were a constant companion - starting a new semester, a new paper, a new group, etc. Then, this sense of constant renewal seemed to be lost for a while when "real life" hit.

The beauty of this change, though, is in what it's taught me about repentance and the Atonement. Growing up, it seemed that the focus was always on starting over again, clean. And yes, the Atonement has an incredible cleansing power. But it is not just like an eraser. Instead, it is a power that cleanses and purifies with depth, rather than starting you over every time. Let me explain what I mean.

When I thought of the Atonement as simply a means to start anew again, it was easy to become frustrated with all the frequency of times I needed the cleansing power of the Savior. It put too much emphasis on getting rid of the bad, rather than the empowering power of the Atonement. Instead, the true power that I have found is that the Atonement creates depth of sanctification, not just surface cleansing. Not having a new beginning is alright because life is a series of moments when we can decide to submit ourselves to the Lord and be cleansed, in a deeper way each time if we allow ourselves to endure and continue to learn the extent to which Christ is the foundation of our lives and purpose here.

In reality, then, a new season is created when I allow the Lord to increase the depth of His reach into my life. It is new not because the surface is renewed, but because the heart, the center of the soul, is changed.

Not sure if this makes complete sense to anyone else, but expressing the way that the Lord has changed and continues to change my life is always difficult. Amazing grace cannot begin to explain it . . .