I was listening to a report on the radio last week that talked about how professional baseball players who are traded to a different team in the middle of the season get a fresh start, a reset, that often results in a bump in their performance after the trade. Their batting average, for example, might jump from the 200s to the 300s. Researchers found that this bump was even more pronounced when the player was traded from one league to another. Why might this be the case?

There are two different leagues in professional baseball, the National League and the American League. When a player is traded to a team within the same, that players’ statistics carry forward. But when a trade takes place from one league to the other, the players’ statistics automatically reset. It’s like they’re starting again from scratch. So a cross-league trade offers the player a completely fresh start, and that reset often results in improved performance.

I found this report fascinating, and it made me wonder: Have you ever experienced something like this, a fresh start, a reset? 

Maybe it’s a new school, or a new job, or retirement, or a recovery from an illness or injury, or a new season in your life. I think every time I’ve moved to a new appointment, it’s been something of a fresh start, a reset for me in my ministry. I also remember when we moved here to Signal Mountain and Wesley was going into his junior year in high school. I worried about how moving in the middle of high school would affect him, but he was actually looking forward to a fresh start. It would be an opportunity, he said, for a reset.

Maybe one of the reasons we celebrate a new year is that it provides an opportunity for a fresh start, a reset. It’s a time to wipe the slate clean, return all the ledgers to zero, let the past be the past, and look ahead with new energy and enthusiasm. And unlike baseball players who are traded from one team to another, it doesn’t necessarily require a physical move from one place to another. It’s more of a spiritual mentality.

Every single day, every new morning, in its own way, offers a fresh start, a reset. And maybe that’s why I love the prayer of thanksgiving for the order of worship for morning prayer that we find in the back of our hymnal (#877):

New every morning is your love, great God of light,

and all day long you are working for good in the world.

Stir up in us desire to serve you,

to live peacefully with our neighbors,

and to devote each day to your Son,

our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Amen.