Sunday, January 10, 2010

New Year, New You?


Is this the year your spiritual heartbeats will thump with your highest joy for His utmost glory? Will you resolve to have a special time and place for reading God's Word each day? Will you sign up for your first mission trip? Will your prayer life blossom like a beautiful magnolia, large and fragrant?

I know we all make and usually break our New Year's resolutions. But some promises to ourselves are bigger than ourselves. If you were to increase your time in prayer and Bible reading by twice, would that be a great sacrifice? How can you do such a thing when the urgency of the banal calls? Dishes need washing, clothes need folding, errands need running, your workplace needs you on time regularly, homes need cleaning, and meals need to be made and eaten.

Even though we are part of the microwave generation, some things are just too important to breeze through in seconds or moments. Think about the vow that a priest makes: to be chaste, to be poor, and to obey God. As future citizens of God's kingdom, we must peel away the non-essential parts of our lives and dig down to the foundations of our soul to find the peace and joy only God can give us.

In order to be closer to God, perhaps you could peel away some of the obstacles between you and the lover of your soul, the one who makes your heart soar with undeserved love, mercy, and grace. Here are some of my own personal obstacles:
  • too much TV watching
  • too much email to manage, read, delete
  • too much junk snail mail
  • too much time wasted looking at online bargains for things I want but don't need
  • too many dogs that need attention, food, snacks
  • too much time doing my make-up and hair (vanity, vanity!)
  • Disorganization at my desk, especially for my business cards
You may have an extremely different set of obstacles or perhaps one like mine. In the big picture, what will we leave behind as a legacy of how we spent the time God gave us on earth? Will it be one that includes great God conversations or the flotsom and jetsom of life?

Blessings and Agape for the New Year,
L. B. Greer