Our yearning for the "fresh"

By Tom Ehrich

When we launched Fresh Day magazine ten months ago, I took "fresh" to mean new, different, the word not previously spoken.

It is all of that. But "fresh," I now see, means more.

It means "repentance" -- changing one's mind and thinking, acting, valuing and believing in ways that life has shown are more aligned with God.

Fresh means "revisiting" -- seeing the familiar as if for the first time.

Fresh means "renewal" -- seeking and allowing new life in oneself.

Fresh means "restoration" -- not going back in time, which is impossible, but going forward with a keener sense of God and self, with a wholeness that had been lost or maybe never known.

Fresh is the "found" after "lost," the "living" amid "dying." the "new" message in an existential "inbox" that already seemed full.

The opposite of "fresh" isn't "old" or "dated." It's "stale." It's the leavening that has lost its sparkle, the eyes that are dead, the journey that has come to seem hopeless.

"Fresh" is about the "way forward." That is the way Jesus walked -- onward, forward, sometimes to new places, sometimes to familiar places, but always with a new and lively word, a challenge to power, a promise to the lost.

I am convinced people want this freshness. We sometimes cling to the stale because it is known and we are afraid. But we also yearn for newness of life.