Reset

It is the beginning of a new week, and the early phases of a busy season for me.  It is times like these that seem like the perfect moments for a reset.  There are lots of different resets around us all the time.  Every morning, once the night has gone, the sun begins to rise, giving the signal of a reset for “today.”  All that is yesterday has become out of reach, and all we have to put our hands on is today.

There are other types of resets.  You can reset a watch or a timer.  Whether you are cooking or racing or doing any sort of activity that is set within a specific time, once you are done you have a chance to reset and try it again.  (Even as I typed this blog, my computer froze, and I was forced to “reset” and re-write all that was erased…irony that isn’t too funny).  The most successful time in any sort of competition can be wiped away with a simple press of that reset button.  In that same regard, a poor, unimpressive time in a competition can also be cleared out by a press of that same reset button.

Reset has a way of taking us back to a beginning, before accomplishments or failures made their first showing.  This thinking started this morning by taking it back to the beginning…like the very beginning…like “In the beginning”.  Reading in Genesis 1 and 2 sparked a lot of thoughts on this idea of reset, and going back to the start.  Random thought – what if you could go back to your beginning?  Would you want to?  Given the chance to go back and start over, erase all the mistakes you have made…and with it erase every good moment, every precious memory…would you make that choice?  It is a weird dynamic to think about.  Would you want to try and live your life over again, so things could be a little different?  To be able to go back and act differently in relationships that are now bruised or broken…but at that same time to forget every precious memory of friendship, of holding the hand of the one you want to be with, of laughing without restraint.  To reset and be able to re-learn so many of the things you have missed along the way, but to also be put through the process of having to re-learn everything.  The power of reset is both wonderful and frustrating.

I think reset may be one of the most important things we do every year, month, day and so on.  When I look back at the beginning, and the work of our Creator, I am struck by the reality of His rhythm of reset with creation…and we are part of that creation.  I can look and remember the way in which He created me…I came from dust.  BUT, I can also reset and remember that He created ME!  This creator brought me up from dust, but He specifically worked to form me…giving attention to the smallest details of me. 

It is in light of this Creator and His reset that I am inclined to allow myself to reset.  Each morning, I have a chance to allow the regrets and frustration of yesterday to be just that – “yesterday” -  and learn to move on into today.  Those same moments mean saying goodbye to all of the good things of yesterday, because they are memories of realities past – but reset allows me to fully experience the memories to come, from today’s realities.  Reset brings a sunrise, and a zero-ing of the clock, to freshly experience new work, new mercies, new love.