A New Thing

Focus Statement

A God beginning requires more than remembering what God has done;

it requires recognizing what God is doing now.

Point of Relation

Billy Joel recently explained that he stopped releasing albums

because he had watched older artists continue past their prime and “dilute their legacy.”

I disagree with him.

Plenty of artists have proven otherwise.

Johnny Cash produced some of his most powerful work near the end of his life.

Ozzy Osbourne continued releasing strong music decades after his supposed prime.

Bon Jovi has also continued creating music without diminishing the songs that established their legacy.

Yet Bon Jovi once tried something particularly risky,

rearranging their classics on This Left Feels Right.

I loved the new versions.

Many fans did not.

They wanted the old songs exactly as they remembered them.

Sometimes we become so attached to what once gave us life

that we cannot recognize new life within it.

A God beginning requires more than remembering what God has done;

it requires recognizing what God is doing now.

Things to Consider

We can honor what God has done without demanding that God repeat it.

Faithfulness does not mean preserving everything exactly as we remember it.

Sometimes God takes what is familiar and makes it new.

The question is not whether it sounds like before—

but whether we can hear what God is creating now.

What Scripture Says

This struggle to recognize something new is not unique to us.

The people of Israel knew the defining story of God

making a way through the sea.

In fact, the people first hearing the words in Isaiah 43:18-19 had lived through national catastrophe.

Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed,

and decades of exile had left them wondering whether they still had a future.

The stakes were not simply whether they could accept change—

but whether they could recognize

God creating new life after everything familiar had been lost.

As such, they risked expecting God’s next act of deliverance

to resemble the last one.

God says, “Do not remember the former things.”

This does not mean they should erase their history.

It means they must not become so focused on what God did

that they fail to perceive what God is doing.

During the Exodus, God made dry ground appear amid the water.

Now God promises water amid dry ground.

The same faithful God is acting—

but not repeating the same miracle.

God’s past faithfulness teaches us to trust the new thing God is doing,

not demand that God repeat the old thing.

Revelation carries that promise forward:

“See, I am making all things new.”

God does not discard creation

but renews what sin, suffering, injustice, and death have wounded.

Isaiah promises a new way through the wilderness;

Revelation reveals where that way is leading—

the renewal of all creation. PRAISE BE TO GOD! Amen?

The question is not merely whether we remember what God once did.

The question is whether we recognize what God is doing now.

What This Means for You

Recognizing what God is doing may require

you to stop expecting God’s answer to resemble a previous one.

Unfamiliarity is not proof of God’s absence.

The new thing may begin as a small opportunity,

an unexpected relationship,

or a part of yourself God is finally bringing to life.

Remember what God has done,

but ask: 

What is God doing now—

and am I willing to recognize it?

What This Means for Us

As churches, we must not measure God’s activity solely by whether it resembles our strongest years.

God may not be restoring what our/each congregation once was.

God may be forming something new

through the histories, gifts, and people we bring together.

We remember what God has done—

but we must also ask: 

What is God doing among us now,

and are we willing to recognize it?

Let our answer be a resounding:

“Yes Lord, we recognize and are ready!”

Amen? Amen.

Written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).