By Dr. Thomas Robinson

Farmville Presbyterian

It’s a big time for something new to happen. The Farmville Herald is going to a new format; a new month begins on Saturday; a new school year gets cranked up in a matter of weeks (staff and students, aren’t you so glad I brought that up?).

It may seem like a strange time for new things to happen. We are in the middle of the year, in the middle of the “Dog Days of Summer,” hardly a time for new things to pop up. And yet they do.  Any day is a great time and a great opportunity for something new to happen.

But maybe we don’t want new things to happen. We like the old much better. Everything is moving along okay, just as it is (or so we think). Or the past is so bad that we don’t want to dig it up again.  Or the future comes with too many deep concerns about what will happen, what new disaster will occur, what special person in our lives will be taken in death?

We can get morose about it, this journey of life. Or we can take each day as it comes for the blessing it is.  Every 24-hour period is the time period we have something to work with, the time we can do something about.  We can’t do anything about yesterday, and tomorrow is still out there. “This is the day the Lord has made,” the 118^th Psalm reminds us; “let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

It’s too bad so many people think the Bible is a book that solidifies tradition. The Bible is a revolutionary book, because through it God is constantly telling people about the new things God is doing — in creation, in calling a people, in freeing slaves; in giving a Savior, in calling for justice, in giving new life.  “Behold, I am making all things new…,” God says at the very end of the Bible (Revelation 21:5).

This is an exciting time to be alive; exciting because God is doing new things, in our churches, in our town, in our schools, in our lives. New life is bursting all around us. But what’s even more incredible is that new life is bursting within us. New possibilities exist for us to live, to work, to come together, to grow, to discover new ways that God is breaking forth in our lives. Enjoy this new day, and the new thing God is doing in your life!

Dr. Thomas Robinson is the Pastor of Farmville Presbyterian Church.

(Area pastors interested in submitting devotionals for publication are asked to email us at rob.chapman@farmvilleherald.com.)