New Beginnings
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
ISAIAH 43:18-19
We are so excited to be launching our new website full of great and exciting new content we have been building over the last year. It’s been great to have something to look forward to in amongst all the uncertainty of the world around us.
On our new webpage you will find our latest blogs, podcasts and videos as well as some exciting resources that are available to download. These resources have been built especially to be able to run in person or online which makes them a great resource for youth groups meeting online or for mentoring sessions too. Our hope is that these will encourage and inspire young people in their faith or those exploring faith for the first time.
The beginning of the year saw us as an organisation step out into new ground of moving our charity from a more face to face format to online. We were uncertain as to how our move online would go having never developed an online resource platform before, recorded podcasts or started a YouTube channel. With hindsight we are so glad we took the leap of faith however at the time we were concerned as to how it would be received, how people would respond and whether it would be a success or not. It is hard to know what the future will hold when we haven’t had a snapshot of it or been there before. We can feel uncertain, scared even at the prospect of things going wrong or not working out.
In some ways this is how we felt as we decided to push into becoming an organisation that produces online content that is faith based and designed to encourage and support young women in their faith through podcasting, videos and downloadable resources. Making the choice to step back from our local youth events and push forward into reaching more young women using the platform that the internet felt scary. Along the way we’ve made mistakes, felt worried, alone and scared. But we are glad we took the risk. And as a result, here is a new website with all our content in one place which we are believing will be a great resource for young people, youth workers and mentors across our country.
It made us think that like choosing to launch something new where you don’t know how it will work out is a little like how our future may feel like right now as we look ahead to the winter in the face of a pandemic that is Covid-19. None of us thought this was going to last this long and with new lockdown restrictions looming we can find ourselves feeling overwhelmed at how we will ‘get through’ another chapter of this. Maybe this is just us? When we don’t know the outcome of something, when we are unaware of how things will work out or how we will cope what is our response?
Do you hide? Pretend it isn’t there? Get overwhelmed or face your fears? Sometimes it can feel like it is all too much to handle. We want to block it out and hide away. Other times the emotions of anger, frustration and sadness can feel like they will overwhelm us. But like us deciding to step out in faith to push into new ground we can learn something for the future we face of uncertainty from the lessons we have learnt in stepping out in the past.
The bible has many things to say about the places that feel too difficult to face, or the ground that hasn’t been walked or destinations not found. We are not the first in our world to face the challenges of uncertainty of health and economic impact so what can we learn about our process of pushing into new ground in the face of difficulty from those who have gone before us?
The first thing would be this. You are not on your own. The bible is full of people who faced uncertainty. Mary, Jesus’s mother was a teenager who fell pregnant out of wedlock. A total no-no in her society and time of life. No one believed her when she told them the truth that she was carrying God’s child – yet she believed and stayed steadfast. She must have been very frightened for her future and how things were going to work out, but she chose to listen to God’s words over her life and not those mocking her. Or take someone like Abraham in the Bible – he had been promised a large family that would inherit and populate the whole world – but his wife wouldn’t fall pregnant. Did he doubt? Yes, but God still came through for him in the middle of his doubt. Or take Ruth in the bible who had lost everything she had that was important in her life and faced a future of poverty, hunger and abandonment. Did God forget her? Did he leave her to face things on her own? No. He came alongside her in the situations she was a part of and helped her into a future that was filled with hope. Take us for example, we did not know if our ‘move online’ would mean that our charity would grind to a halt or flourish. But God has been faithful. He always is. And he has brought many good things to us over the last year despite the challenges we have faced.
So, as we all face an uncertain future of many unknowns, we can know this. The same way God has provided for Diamonds Scotland in the last year and sine we started and the same way he provided for countless people in the Bible and others in history he is going to be with you and provide for you too. How do we know? Because that is who God is. God is a God of love, protection and provision and therefore he isn’t going to bring harm to you. Bad things may happen, we may face hard days and sadly this often is our experience in life but like Mary, Abraham and Ruth God is going nowhere, he will not leave you and will promise to fight for you and will provide in miraculous ways in your life even if things seem impossible.
“Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.” Deut. 3:22
It is often hard to see the new beginnings form until we look back and see new growth or evidence of life and progress. However, for that first leaf to grow in a new plant in spring there must be roots that grow to support the leaves growth and development. This growth starts with a seed which germinates and takes root, grows and then after some time makes a physical appearance. The first and most important growth is unseen, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. So, as we look ahead to what may feel like a long dark tunnel or a large black cloud of a uncertain future we want to encourage you that there is growth of new things starting in your life. Some cannot be seen yet but like a new initiative starting which begins with just an idea God is starting and is at work in your life today and is in your future too bringing good things into your life. Can you see it? Maybe not yet but as you wait for the new growth of new chapters starting, pause knowing that nothing you face you do on your own and that there is a God who love you, who will never leave you and is fighting for you today.
