The ringing in of a new year brings lots of resolutions, promises and questions, not the least of which is, “Can You Really Start Over?” It’s a question worth asking at a time of year when most of us would like to turn over a new leaf. It also happens to be one that deserves an answer, because there is a lost world that needs to see Christians who have gone through the process of renewal.

The Question: Can I Start Over?

Perhaps, before delving into the answer, we should examine the question more closely. What does it mean to, “start over?” It doesn’t mean we can make the past disappear. Starting over is different from a do-over. Unfortunately, life isn’t quite that forgiving and the bad decisions we have made in preceding years will most likely still yield some consequences.

Life is more akin to, “Do better next time,” than it is, “Act like it never happened.” One of my favorite stories to tell is about a young man I knew in the 1970s. He, a former drug addict and convicted felon, gave his life to Christ and experienced radical transformation. His change was so complete that he was hardly recognizable as the same person.

One day, while working at his new job, a county sheriff came into the store to arrest him. The charges stemmed from a bad check he wrote a few years before. My friend protested, “But officer, I’m a new man. God has forgiven me, and I’ve truly started over.” The sheriff responded, “God may have forgiven you, but the judge who issued this warrant for your arrest hasn’t.”

“Bugs” (his nickname), had contemplated the question, “Can you really start over?” many times and spiritually speaking, he had become convinced that God was able to wipe the slate clean and give him a fresh start. He was right. But what he didn’t understand, and what we all wrestle with, is that being forgiven and making a fresh commitment to right living doesn’t remove the consequences of past actions.

The Answer: Yes, You Can Start Over…but may not like you think

          So, when we ask the question, “Can you really start over,” what we must acknowledge is that we can change the present and the future, but we cannot, for the most part, change the past. Yes, we ought to make amends. And yes, we should ask forgiveness from those we may have wronged. We can even go through the healing process of symbolically apologizing to those who have passed to help us get through the grief that comes through unresolved issues. But we cannot undo what’s done.

         One of the great narratives of the Bible that reinforces this principle tells the story of a man named Zacchaeus. Prompted by an encounter with Christ, he repents and even pledges to repay what he has taken unfairly from others, four-fold. That is incredibly generous and illustrates just how transformative a relationship with Christ can be. But what Zacchaeus’ contrition and restitution could not do was erase the past.

The Good News: God is a God of Start Overs!

What Zacchaeus and my friend Bugs could not do in the flesh; God can do in the spiritual realm. Your friends, the courts, and even your spouse may not be able to forget your missteps of the past, but miraculously, God can.

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”– Hebrews 8:12 (ESV)

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” – Psalms 103:12 (NASB95)

“He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” – Micah 7:19 (NASB95)

          God’s ability to forgive and forget is beyond our comprehension, but that does not make it any less true. He is not only able, but willing, and perhaps we should say, anxious to extend second and third chances to His children. The Scriptures are full of examples of His saints “starting over.”

The Bottom Line

          Don’t let your inability to change the past, keep you from changing the future. You are not chained to the mistakes of the past. You can receive forgiveness and break free from the bondage that “yesterday” brought. Even when you have been unfaithful to God…He is always faithful to you.

“The LORD’S acts of mercy indeed do not end,

For His compassions do not fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:22-23 (NASB)