Clean Slate

A new year gives us the opportunity for a fresh start. We examine ourselves and the past year, we make resolutions, many Christians take communion on New Year’s Eve as an act of remembering that Jesus wipes our slate clean when we surrender to Him.

Forgiving ourselves and accepting forgiveness has a lot to do with our outlook on the prospects for the coming year. We all like to start off with a clean slate.

My question today is… are you doing all you can to offer the same fresh start to those in your life needing your forgiveness. Is there someone in your life you need to extend the same forgiveness you have received from others and from God in order for their slate to be wiped free of wrong-doing toward you?

Really, our slates can’t be completely clean without doing that very thing.

Occasionally, my inner switch turns from writer to reader, and I absorb a wealth of new words from new authors as well as old favorites. Recently, I have read two books in a row with a similar theme: forgiveness.

I chose them at random and had never heard of either of the authors.

Both deal with gritty and emotional issues, but resonate truth and triumph too. No sugar coating, but no drama acrobatics either. Just real pain and real solutions.

The first is If I Gained the World written by Linda Nichols. It’s about a young, single lady abandoned by the father of her son. The second is Healing Stones written by Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn. It’s about a Christian college professor caught in adultery. Both books illustrate a stark contrast between whitewashed religion and true Christianity, full of lessons we all could stand to learn. At least, I know I could and hope I do.

The overall theme of forgiveness, that pesky thing we long for but have trouble dispensing to others, made me wonder about this coming year. Am I starting out with a truly clean slate? Have I done all I can do to help clean the slates of others?

In other words, have I forgiven everything?

I’ll be talking to God about that for me. I challenge you to do the same for you.

Start 2010 out with a clean slate!

(photos by photobucket.com)