Greetings dear readers, today I share with you this beautiful reflection that I have entitled year of return. First of all, I am a man of faith, of firm Christian convictions, something that I always want to make clear in any environment I find myself, this allows me to be authentic and walk with my head held high.
The expression “Year of Return” is the phrase used in the prophetic proclamation for 2025, declared by the organization to which I have belonged for a few years now, and as many religious organizations, companies or groups use to declare to start a new cycle, a new stage, a new project or even each beginning of a new year.
One of the first things I want to emphasize is that, to return simply means to go back to some place where we were before, then this implies that somehow we left some place, we stopped doing something we usually did, to resume some task or specific discipline.
To return, also implies to recognize that we should have never left that place, to have changed the routine, to have modified some habit; it implies to recognize that we were wrong when we made a decision and consequently the regret leads us to make the decision to return to the place we should have never left, this is not about religion, this applies to every wrong decision we have made in our life.
Now, there are places, moments and specific situations to which we can never return no matter how much we want to, I could say, there are doors that once closed cannot be opened; there are others that cost a lot of effort but represent a last chance for us, that is, it is the train that passes for the last time and if you want to return to the place you should not miss it.
the bible, for example, encourages us to return to the first love, to the first works and we could interpret this call as an exhortation to do things as at the beginning, with the same passion, with the same dedication, with the same purity, with the same spirit, honesty and integrity with which we started a relationship, a project, a career, etc, etc...
"Revelation 2:4 But I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love.
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works: or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."
The most convincing example of the return, in my opinion, is that of the prodigal son; the bible tells the story of a father who had two sons, then, the youngest of them moved by curiosity and the desire to experience new things requested his part of the inheritance to the father, I presume that after some discussions and advice the father agreed to the request; and after this the young man took the money from the inheritance and went to a distant province, the bible tells and living madly spent all the money.
To the squandering of the young man, was added a terrible crisis in the region and this combination plunged him into a devastating crisis, so much so that he had to work in a herd taking care of pigs, (unclean animals for their beliefs) and hunger was so strong that he wanted to fill his stomach with the food of the pigs.
All this precarious situation made him reflect on what he had before, the place he had left, and the abundance he had at home. Thinking about this, the young man made a decision and said: “I will arise and go to my father”.
"Luk 15:18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
Luk 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants."
Then, the bible says that the father saw him coming from afar, reached him, embraced him and ordered new clothes for his son, to celebrate the return to his place of that young man who, by making a bad decision, had left the place that corresponded to him.
Now, on reflection, in our case as believers we often abandon established places and habits such as prayer, communion with our Lord, even our place of service within the kingdom, a place to which we can and need to return for our spiritual health and the welfare of our environment.
But what about when we have left habits in our marital relationship, the details, the care for each other, the attention within the marriage and it starts to deteriorate, it is time to go back to the beginning, where it all started.
Maybe it's not about our marriage relationship, but healthy financial habits and we start to suffer financial consequences, let's go back and do the right thing before it's too late.
If you are very young and you abandoned the advice of your parents, to associate with friends who push you to do wrong things, that incline you to vices and excesses, surely this will end badly, well, go back to your place, to the wise advice and to the right path.
If we look carefully in retrospect, surely we will find changes of habits, abandonment of places, practices, relationships and customs that brought changes to our life that lead us to think that we made a bad decision, well, maybe we are in time to return, it is possible that we can regain our peace, our confidence and our stability if we decide to return, to return to that position that we abandoned one day.
For what it's worth, many times pride, pride, unforgiveness or shame will try to prevent your return, so make sure that none of these things or others that resemble them, prevent you from returning to the place that corresponds to you, the place that makes you happy, the place that gives you stability and to which you belong.
