The air outside is so clear and cold--you can hear the silence as snow flurries float down to earth slowly. In the vastness, I can't help but think of God and where He is now. I wonder how far off from Heaven I am. I long to be there. Many years ago I stopped making New Year's resolutions. They seemed so pointless--they lasted days, maybe hours, and the exceptionally long ones made it to March. The person who made the resolution then felt like a failure and gave up--on what was possibly a feat that they could have accomplished had they been more realistic. But my disdain for resolutions perhaps channeled into no change at all--not even an unrealistic attempt. I recently read a quote that said, "It's a mistake to decide what you're going to do before you decide who you're going to be." I think there's a lot of wisdom in this quote--I find myself often acting before I've decided where I want to arrive and without counting the costs that each action takes on me as a person. So this year, I decided to be different--I don't want a New Year's Resolution--a specific area of change that I seek to make perfect. I want a New Year's Course--a map of the direction I'm heading in/a picture of the destination that I hope to arrive at in the course of the next year.
1. I want to live in the moment. Never wishing I was somewhere else. Content with where God has placed me, and if I should be somewhere else, then I will immediately change my life to put me in that spot.
2. I want to seek God's will about every decision of my life--both the big ones (job, moving, etc..) and the little ones (daily activities).
3. I want to hold my life more loosely by always keeping in mind that this world is not my home and that I shouldn't expect it to be. I should not value any relationship, material possession, or worldly comfort above my Treasure, Jesus Christ.
4. I want to measure my personal and life value by my value in Christ rather than my value as I perceive it or as someone else does.
5. I want to make sure that everyone--even the stranger on the street--knows about Jesus and where I stand with Him. No more assumptions that people can "see" something solely based on my actions or that they already know because of the religious area I live in.
6. I want to actively pursue Jesus each day and get to know Him as much as possible in the next year. He intends for us to know Him--so why shouldn't I?
7. I want to meet and create relationships with the outcasts of society and the people that would not normally be in my friend circles. I want to know the poor, the homeless, the victims of violence, the orphans, people of other races/nationalities, .....
8. I want to pour myself out in the Love of Christ until there is nothing left.
No comments:
Post a Comment