WalterAlbritton
Column

Get Up and Make a New Start

Walter Albritton

Sick and tired of the way things are going? Well, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. Everybody has bad days. Days when you feel defeated every way you turn. So it’s ok to mope awhile. Just don’t cave in. Don’t quit. Get up. Get up and sing a song. What song? “I Am Resolved No Longer to Linger” is one I love to sing when I’m “tired of living and afraid of dying.”

Don’t know the tune? Then make up one. Just sing the song. Here are the words:

I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the world’s delight,
Things that are higher, things that are nobler,
These have allured my sight.

Refrain:
I will hasten to Him,
Hasten so glad and free;
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.

I am resolved to go to the Savior,
Leaving my sin and strife;
He is the true One, He is the just One,
He hath the words of life.

I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day;
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the living Way.

I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay;
Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
We’ll walk the heav’nly way.

This simple song says it all. Get resolved to make a new start. Linger in misery no longer! Go to Jesus. Don’t debate it. Don’t be slow about it. Get in a hurry. “Hasten to Him”! Trust Him. He will help you. He is the living Way. There is no other way.

Notice that phrase, “Come, friends, without delay.” You need friends, friends who trust Jesus. Don’t have any? Then find some. Make some. It’s hard to make a new start without the support of caring friends. So find some, “without delay”! Your friends can help you and you can help your friends “walk the heav’nly Way.”

The wonderful thing about life is that, if you are still breathing, you can make a new start. If you woke up this morning, thank God for it. Then don’t stop praying until you hit the “resolve” button. Life has new meaning when you settle on a new goal and “resolve” to reach that goal. Failure results from allowing inertia to win the day. So stay fixed on your goal “come hell or high water.” You know there is a price to be paid for excellence, so pay it.

As I live into 2022 I am resolved to rise early every morning and “hasten” to Jesus. I find in Him all the desires of my heart. He satisfies my hunger for meaning and my thirst for a life that matters. I am resolved to live every minute under the Lordship of Jesus and honor him with every decision I make. No reservations. None.

So come, friends, join me without delay, and let’s walk the heav’nly way together! If you are down, get up and make a new start! Resolve to do it! You can do it – with His help! + + +