A New Year

I’ve never been one to make New Year’s Resolutions, though I haven’t really thought through why, exactly. We were discussing it in Sunday School yesterday, and our teacher made the comment that really we ought to be making resolutions every day, not just on the first day of the year. I think that’s why I feel the way I do about New Year’s Resolutions, too. Dates on the calendar can be arbitrary and man-made distinctions, when you think about it. There is nothing magical about the turning of the calendar from 2011 to 2012.

The beginning of a new year is a good reminder to reflect and think, though, bound by time as we are in this life, and it doesn’t hurt to evaluate where we are and where we need to be going.

During the worship service yesterday, I found myself praying this, “Father, I know that You, our Creator and Lord, are not bound by time, and our calendar dates are things we have devised to help us to measure time and live in this world. But I am bound by time here, and I pray that 2012 will be the year I seek You whole-heartedly. Please put in me an ever growing desire and hunger to obey Your word and to seek You and to live in the light of the gospel, in 2012 and for however many days You have designed for me. Help me to love You more and to live in that light all my days.” I do know that the longer I’ve walked with Jesus, the more I’ve grown to love Him and to long for a gospel-saturated life, and the less desire I have for things that just a few years ago seemed important, and the more I’m able to enjoy the things of this life in a right way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not seeking to live some mystical, heady, emotional existence where I have my head in the clouds on some 'higher plane' all the time. And I’m not seeking to have a purely intellectual faith where I can give all the correct doctrinal answers and enjoy my much learning, but have it not impact my living. This life is hard, and what I desire is to live the life God has called me to live well and for His glory, to glorify Him in obedient living and in going for it when I’m called to step out of my comfort zone and talk to my neighbors and others and live a gospel-saturated life, running the race well and with zeal for my Lord. I’m not looking for a spiritual experience in doing the laundry. But I do want to live each day without forgetting that I belong to Christ and that my heart’s desire is to glorify Him. We talked in Sunday School yesterday about how fleeting our life on this earth is and how differently we would live if we go about our daily walk keeping an eternal perspective. 

I saw this video the other day, and it has really stuck with me. I just love how the drawings symbollically capture the message of the song and the mindset we are to have in this life. 

“Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Hebrews 13:13-16