Where people are on their own and live by their own devices, there is only the old, the past. Only where God is can there be a new beginning. We cannot command God to grant it: we can only pray to God for it. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions (p. 2)

The past I know, lived, have declined.
I’ve tried that, know it to be living death,
have turned away, turned to the new.
I can see the new, observe it in others,
grasp the power it possesses, the joy it holds.
I can desire that, yearn for that, demand that,
but that does no good. I cannot earn it,
barter for it, inherit it, claim it as my right.
God does not grant it to me on my command,
for that act of commanding is proclaiming myself
to be the power, have the power, wield the power.
But I am not power, have no power, wield no.
The Power that can, though, has no intention
to deny me this prize. Rather, that Power
waits patiently for me to ask, to submit,
to yield my puny power which is no power,
to accept the great gift the Power has for me.