Some phrases in our common usage are tossed about like worn underwear. You realize you’re handling it, but you don’t especially pay that much attention to the details. A “new” beginning is such a phrase. By definition each beginning is new. And yet, we don’t seem to mind the redundancy. We’re hoping to emphasize that “this” beginning is newer than most in that it will exact more cleansing power for yesterday’s dirty underwear.
In Christianity each day is a beginning, but Easter Sunday was a “new” beginning. Paul tells us that the Resurrection mean more than Jesus will take us to Heaven one day. He tells us the Resurrection is the tangible hope for the Holy Spirit’s very tangible work in our nasty, underweared lives:
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you(Romans 8:11; ESV).
Yes, we can be forgiven of the boo-boos we committed, but Paul is emphasizing something far more potent than taking Ex-Lax with a trucker’s 64oz size “cup” of apple juice. Paul is saying we can be physically empowered to live for Jesus and his way, by being transformed internally. We can literally have victory over Sin … not just death. That is some kind of “new” beginning.
If that were all, simply being able to stop sinning and being made more like Jesus, then we would have eternal reasons for rejoicing. However, Paul’s thought continues through the chapter to this remarkable verse that we often attempt to make stand alone:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose(Romans 8:28; ESV).
Not only am I promised victory over sin in this “new” beginning, known as the Resurrection, I am also promised that the Holy Spirit will take the muck and grime of yesterday’s underwear and use it for fertilizer for tomorrow’s fruitful life for God. The recent movie “Up” carries a similar theme.
Up
Carl and Ellie Fredricksen, an unlikely couple, are Elementary School sweethearts who fall in love over one vision: Charlz Muntz, the disgraced explorer/adventurer. They eventually marry and begin to save up for their ultimate vacation: moving their house to the pinnacle of Paradise Falls, the former haunt of Charlz Muntz. But life happens and their Paradise Falls savings is spent on one rotten apple after another. However, their life together becomes over the years an Eden of what could be. Eventually Ellie dies, leaving Carl cold, lonely, and depressed in exile from Eden to live in what could have been. Now in the midst of a hungry city jungle that is threatening to devour his last vestiges of their Eden, Carl is forced to the sunset of their dreams together in Shady Oaks retirement home.
In one last fit of desperation Carl arranges the crazy scheme of turning their house into a blimp. With those tens of thousands of balloons it literally is Paradise Fall or bust … bust-pop-bust-pop. What Carl doesn’t figure into his equation is a little dreamy-eyed wilderness explorer, Russell. Russell is what Carl was, Russell is in the way of Carl finally accomplishing what he and Ellie dreamed when they were Russell’s age. Russell brings with him baggage, and, as Carl inches towards his destination, Russell’s baggage becomes heavier with the introduction of his new friend, Kevin. Russell is baggage. And Carl can’t seem to cut his baggage loose, despite his best efforts.
Carl meets up with his former hero, Charlz Muntz, and for a moment reenters Paradise Lost only to find the last vestiges of his innocence lost. Charles is desperate to trap and return to the States with the mythical bird Kevin. Charlz was disgraced long ago, because the world refused to believe his stories of birds like Kevin. Now he will stop at nothing to capture Kevin, who happens to be Russell’s only friend in the world. Whether he likes it or not, Carl has now become attached to Russell, and he is in the very awkward position of cutting himself loose from his attachment to his childhood hero to be a hero to his new child-friend.
At a very powerful moment Carl reaches for Ellie’s exploration scrap book. As a kid Ellie had put paraphernalia in there regarding her dreams of adventure. She leaves a huge section open: “Adventures I’ll have next.” Carl’s dream, as Ellie’s friend, sweetheart, and husband has always been to make sure Ellie could fill those pages; the ultimate adventure being their trip to Paradise Falls. On her deathbed Ellie hands her scrapbook to Carl, who sets it on the proverbial shelf. After all their entire life, in his eyes, has been a perpetual shelving event. As Carl flips through the scrapbook he accidentally opens the “Adventures I’ll have next” section to find that Ellie had filled those pages with photos and such of their life together.
Carl’s life is about to flounder and die with the loss of his hero’s standing in his eyes. He truly has nothing anymore. His hero is a villan in his life. His house is nothing. Ellie is long dead. Yet, Carl is reborn through Ellie’s scrapbook. He now realizes that the ultimate adventure he was waiting for was his life with Ellie. He now realizes that he is just about to cut another real adventure off from his life in finally getting rid of Russell and Kevin.
So Carl embarks on an adventure to save Russell and Kevin. After adrenaline-rushing moments Russell and Kevin trap Charlz in the house that is now attached to Charlz’s blimp. Russel and Kevin jump to the blimp, and Carl cuts the house loose. The house, Charlz, and Carl’s old dreams plummet to their death at the bottom of Paradise Falls. Carl’s new adventure takes flight, goes “Up,” with Russell, as Russell’s dad-figure.
