The Land of Beginning Again


Seek that ye may excel.--I Cor. 14: 12.

I suppose all of us, in our more sober moods, feel that we are not as good as we might be and are not doing as well as we might do, and wish that we might attain a higher degree o excellence in character and conduct.

Doubtless many of us feel so ashamed of the way we have lived and acted, that we wish we might wipe the slate clean and start all over again. We recall the familiar lines and they become deeply personal: “I wish there were some wonderful place Called the Land of Beginning Again, Where all our mistakes and poor heartaches, Could be dropped--like a shabby old coat at the door--And never put on again” (Louisa Fletcher).

There is such a place. It is open to everyone through the gospel of Christ.

It is a great gospel, a wonderful gospel, that Jesus gives sinning men and women another chance, that Christ can cleanse away the sins of the past, give a person a clean page and a fresh start, that He can take the prodigal by the hand and lead him back to the Father's house, put a robe on him, a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet, and set him in the Land of Beginning Again.

But having been granted a new beginning, you must press on “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3: 14). You must “make it your whole concern to furnish your faith with resolution, resolution with intelligence, intelligence with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherliness, and brotherliness with Christian love” (II Pet. 1: 5-7, Moffatt).

You may wish to excel in these virtues and graces. That is good, but wishing is not enough. It requires something more solid than merely wishing to form the foundation for building Christian character. It takes faith--faith in God, faith in life's possibilities, faith under girded by a fixed determination to press on to those heights where the light of victory shines upon the upward path. This is the victory that comes to all who walk with Christ “the captain and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and hath sat down as the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12: 2, A.S. Version).