I speak to prisoners about spirituality at the local halfway house. After the end of a lecture, one big bad boy came up to me trembling and said, “I’m a bad boy, I deserve to be here, I was born bad, etc.” And at that very moment, God spoke through me and said, (I can‘t remember it word for word, but it was very simple): “This moment in time, is the very first moment of the rest of your life,” so simple, but yet, so powerful for this big, burly man!

It hit him so hard that he wouldn’t stop shaking my hand and started to cry. Right then, our souls touched each other, and I felt all the pure perfect love that was in his soul. At that very moment, our two souls danced. Not only did he feel my soul, I just knew that he felt the reflection of his own soul and just how beautiful and perfect it is!

New Year’s Eve, I really started to understand what this really means. So simple, but so true: “That each day, each moment is a fresh new beginning, because of the power of forgiveness through God and his son,” and the past can hold us down only if we permit it to. We’re all forgiven.

There is no yesterday, and there is no tomorrow; there is only this moment; the moment of life is happening now! Happy New Year, and may God bless you in making every moment a fresh new start!

Walter Cobler

Bayfield