Constant renewal is the call of the Christian life, and the desire for starting fresh marries up nicely with cultural pulls. We want to live our best lives, and we would like to do it all at once, starting now. I would rather not be who I am today, so staring now, I’m a new person.

These resets come on strong, especially in the new year, but fizzle quickly. Inertia overtakes momentum and, as it turns out, we’re the same people we always were.

This desire for positive change, admirable as it is, is a recognition that I am not who I want to be. Instead of becoming that person someday, what if there was a way we could start it today?

There is such a way, to be made entirely new, to be handed a fresh opportunity to live life a different way, and that is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In it, we name the ways in which we have fallen, gaining power over them, and receive the very grace of God to begin life anew.

Resets are important, and when you walk out of the Confessional, you can be entirely certain that you’re made new. The only question is, what are you going to do with this reset?