My favorite kind of beginnings are ones that are a return to what I’ve already done. I love to have a fresh start without having to figure out how to navigate a new system or place; it is the best of both navigating a system you already know, but also getting to start with a new and invigorated hope.
Days like to today are my favorite because they are begin again days; it’s a fairly arbitrary mark on the calendar in which a new phase of life starts. As the Spring semester starts for Western Kentucky, I have an intense appreciation for the chance to begin again. This morning it was lovely to see people walk around campus gearing up for their days and for the start of their classes. Last night the coffee shop was already buzzing with students with oversized textbooks and brightly lit computers. And even as the spring like weather begins to soak campus, I’m sure that this semester holds bright sunny days to come (even if we have to endure a few more winter ones before we get there).
For some of our students this is their first time to begin again at Western, and for others it’s their last; today’s chance to begin again holds for each of us something different, but full of hope nonetheless. My prayer for the start of the semester is that each student, faculty member, or staff person on campus today gets a chance to glimpse at the hope of beginning again; that whatever their hopes for the day or the week or the semester or this phase of their life comes to fruition. May your steps and actions be guided by the hope not just for good grades or an easy class schedule, but the hope of the crucified and resurrected messiah. May everything you do today and always be infused with the love of God and the hope of Christ.
O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities and especially Western Kentucky University, that they may be lively centers for sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.