A New Beginning Part 1

It was one of the most exciting days of my life after reading that email! I was an emotional wreck! So happy that I turned into a hysterical mess! I was laughing, crying, screaming and jumping all at the same time. My mom and sister couldn’t decide whether to console me or to be happy with me because, by my hystericalness, it wasn’t very clear whether I had received good or bad news. Well, it was more than good news! It was an email confirming my admission to a university abroad. Honestly, I had just been at a point where I needed a new beginning so badly and this was my miracle!

Fast forward a few weeks from that day and I was sitting in an airplane for the first time, so ready for this new adventure I was about to take! It was a bitter-sweet moment for me because as much as I was excited to take this next step in my life, I was going to be away from my family and the place I call home for quite a while (between you and me though, the sweet was a little bit more than the bitter 😀 ). This was my new beginning… and girl was I ready!

In life, we always have new beginnings – new years, new ages, new careers, new schools, new relationships new marriages, new children, new experiences, and the list goes on and on. Sometimes just like in my experience above, these new beginnings are exciting and we go into them so enthusiastically. However, other times, new beginnings could be hard, challenging, unwanted, and blurry. Like when we lose a loved one and have to re-adjust to the new life without them, or when the road of life takes us to an unexpected turn and leaves us completely dumbfounded on what to do. In this article, I’d like to write about the new beginnings that require taking a risks or taking a leap of faith.

What do you do when your life takes a completely different twist and leads you to a new phase that seems so different from what you thought life was going to look like for you? What do you do when you have to change the one path you were on, working so hard and believing it was yours to take – when it feels like you were on the wrong path all along and now you have to switch to a new one and start at the very beginning – start all over? Maybe your likes, desires, and ambitions are changing and you want to venture into a new and completely different career from what you’ve spent years studying for and/or working in, or maybe you find yourself in the 3rd/4th/5th year of university and you find out that you’re completely uninterested in the course you chose and you want to change to another one. These all require some risk-taking and a whole chunk of faith! Here are some things you can do when you’re faced with such new beginnings;

Trust and Obey

Sometimes, when we get that urge to change paths, that’s God directing us and trying to gently nudge us into the path He has planned for us to take. When you’re sure it is God moving you to venture into this new beginning, yield to him, trust him and above all obey! He’s going to be with you each step of the way and will guide you along till the end. All you have to do is take that leap of faith.

Remember that ‘A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step’

To complete the journey, you have to take that first step. Don’t be afraid about starting late, there are many success stories of people who started pretty late in life yet they are huge successes today. Again, if you’re sure that it is God leading you in a different direction, you can be sure that he’s planned out the whole journey and He will see you through it. So start from where you are and with what you have. Every single step you make takes you closer to the goal.

Know that your Past Wasn’t a Waste

Sometimes we are so reluctant to venture into those risky new beginnings because it seems to us like everything else we had been doing will be a waste – a waste of time, energy and resources. Actually, nothing is a waste! Every single experience you have now teaches you something new that you will need in the future wherever God is taking you. So however different it may seem, don’t think you wasted your time. You didn’t! Your past experiences will definitely come in handy in future.

So, What’s that new, risky turn in your life right now God is leading you to take? Take a leap of faith today and take that first step!