A fresh start. A new year. A new job. A new born baby. A new location. A new marriage. Something to look forward to. Hope is renewed.

That’s the beautiful part of the story. The part we love – and celebrate.

Luke 5:37-38 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

For us to be drawn into a new season, the past season has to come to an end. We must go through a season of emptying…..a season where everything ‘old’ is stripped off us. We will be taken from the Known….into the Unknown – and no, we don’t have a guide. It’s a solo journey.

It seems painful – even confusing. It’s time to leave that job, it’s time to leave those connections – it’s time to find new definition. Only, we don’t know it that way.

You see, many have been here, few talk about it. Truth be told, the rest of the world, really doesn’t care about what happens in your Dark Room. They will whisper about your odd behavior, your withdrawal, maybe the state of your finances…..and will probably celebrate you when you come out on the other side.

It’s a season of rewiring. It’s a season of recalibration. It’s a season of molding. It’s a season of nothingness.

Everything you knew is shifted. You really have no plans, no strategies. You know nothing. You have been emptied.

And then a certain peace and serenity comes upon you. You draw into the depths of your soul. And begin to clearly hear that still small voice.

It’s in the season of nothingness that Character is Formed; Perspective is Defined; and Destiny is Found. And then somehow, you find New Meaning and a New Purpose. New wine is being poured.

Isaiah 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Rebooting. Recalibrating. Restarting. That’s the price we must pay.

Bon Voyage.