Happy New Year

Happy New Year my friends.. we've cheered the old year out and the new one in.. The Christmas tree is down, the decorations are put away, and things supposedly are getting back on a routine track. That week after Christmas and before New Years is a restful one for some, a traveled one for others and a still time of reflection for those who have carved out quiet spots for thoughts. It is by far one of my favored weeks..and as I reflect on the year just past and the horizon of a new one beginning ....I hope that you will think with me for a minute about the events of this past year, and how we have managed to navigate through the joys, the blessings and even the obstacles of life....knowing that with each of them we have learned something and have absorbed a sprinkle of wisdom either in spite of them or because of them. Some events were heart lifters, some heart breakers, some unexpected, some dreaded, some that were joyful anticipations, some were concreted moments of lasting impression......but I suspect that the ones that stand out the most are the ones that dug the deepest in our hearts and touched our very soul......some bringing tears of joy others tears of sorrow. Those remain yesterdays' ....and we forge forward to embrace the ones to come.

Philippians 3:13
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,


There are probably a few things that in retrospect I would have done differently, or things I might have said differently...or now that a little time has passed I might have even perceived differently. But there are always adjustments that I could have made along the year that would have been in God's loving interest over my own selfish one. One day we are in an old year..the next day in a new one, but the changing of the years doesn't constitute the changing of "me" unless I am driven to explore new settings. Kind of like this computer...unless I manually constitute a change in the settings they remain constant and unmoved.

So even as the routine has emerged once again... the year is anew and the time to reflect and reevaluate our settings seems to coincide with yearly timing. Many of us seem to do that...to evaluate and try to adjust lifestyles, habits, relationships, goals.... and make new years resolutions that are hot off the fire and then find they are filtered to simmering status just weeks later.

I finally have figured that the reason that I am not able to stay focused on "changed settings" is that I have not pushed the "save" button. It remains a temporary status change without any lasting discipline. So this year I thought... what if I gave God my password and allowed him to change my settings according to his purposes. Instead of raking the coals of what I see as needed personal adjustments....maybe it would be a worthy effort to ask God what he has in mind...for my life? It would be a little scary for sure...not knowing what "dependents" he would ask that I give up...and what "comfort" sacrifices he would nudge me to make...but if he sees a total picture and I only see everyday glimpses..it makes sense that any efforts that I would attempt, based on HIs nudgings, would be framed with His strength, His power, His wisdom, His grace and His vision as to what He has purposed for my life. How could that direction be anything but to HIs glory....and isn't that, as Christians, what we are to be striving to live for...God's glory!

New Year ...New Beginnings...Christ's way...with Christ settings! We do have a choice...everyday....to do things our way or to seek Christ's way. I will be the first to admit that my way is most of the time the easier way....the quicker way..but I also will be the first to admit that when I do take the time to seek Christ's direction or his wisdom in whatever situations that is before me...I am always at peace with the outcome....even it is it a complete turn about from what I had envisioned.

My prayer this new year is that I will know Christ in a more intimate way, that I will share with him my life password (obedience) so he can change my settings His way. I pray that I will reflect daily on his nature and the awesome unconditional love, grace and forgiveness that he has laid down before me and upon me. I pray that I will willingly submit to his nudges even what it seemingly puts me in a position of my own insecurity or highlights my weaknesses. I pray that Christ will humble me and keep my focus on His greatness instead of my meager circumstances. I pray that Christ will help me to not only take notice of His blessings and gifts...but teach me to grow to appreciate them even when they come wrapped in trials and disappointments. I pray that Christ will show me my sins...and that I will accept responsibility for them...and will have a desire to let him change me accordingly. I pray that I will see others as Christ sees them...without judgment of pride or apathy...and be willing to extend "my" gifts, however small they may be, to be his helper here on earth. And finally I pray for you, my friends, that you too will know God more intimately..and that he will be a gentle yet powerful swaying force in your life....as I have asked that he is in mine.

May this year be filled with God's changes in all of our lives....so that we can be His beacon of light to others who may not know him.
Happy New Year!


Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!