Strength for the Week - Happy New...You?

Ah, another year gone by.  It is time for recovering from the holidays, taking down the decorations, and putting last year behind us as we start anew.  It makes me realize how old I am…
It is a time for reassessment.  We all look back at last year with some regrets over what we didn’t do.  We see resolutions last year that fell by the wayside.  We see how some things didn’t go quite the way we had hoped.  We see how the optimism we had 365 days ago waned as the year went on because real life happened, like it always does.
It is a time for new resolve.  We determine to have no regrets at the end of the year: we are going to stick to our resolutions.  We are going to affect things so that they go the way we hope!  We are more optimistic than we were last year!!   This is the year things change for the better!!!  This year is going to be different!!!!
Spoiler alert: real life is gonna happen again.  Like it always does.
Now, I’m not saying that New Year’s resolutions are bad.  I’m just wondering how many last 365 days, never mind for a lifetime.  I’m not saying that optimism is bad.  I’m just wondering if optimism ever really motivates action, or if it does just the opposite.  I am not saying that this year won’t be different.  I am just wondering how different it can really be if we are no different than we were last year, when we made the same promises and had the same hopes…
Me?  I have a resolution.  Because I look back at last year and have my regrets.  I should have been a better husband, father, pastor, friend, brother, son, and all around person.  Reason for Hope did not grow like I hoped it would.  I did not pray enough or read my Bible enough.  I fell into the same “little white sins” time and again (hey, the sign said no talking or texting while driving.  It said nothing about e-mailing…). 
I have a resolution, and I am going to stick with it.  I am going to affect this year so it goes exactly as I hope it will.  I am going to stay so annoyingly optimistic about this that pure optimism will overflow within me and be pouring out of every body opening that God has given me (don’t think to long about that one…).
Here is my resolution: lay down more.  And I encourage you all to do the same.  Lay down with me.  Face down.  At the feet of Jesus.  All day long.  Spend every waking moment there, every sleeping moment there, and even spend that in between time when your alarm is going off both in reality and in that early morning dream you are having (did you ever have that dream that you woke up and got ready for work and then you really wake up and you have to do it all over again?!?!?)
I have had resolutions before, because I wanted things to go a certain way.  This year, I want things to go the way He wants them to go, no matter what that means.  And if I am not face down at His feet, I am going to want my way.  I want to be optimistic: eternally optimistic.  And if I am not face down at His feet, I will look to other people and other things for hope. 
I want this year to not only be different; I want it to be the difference.  And if this year is going to be different, then I have to be different.  And the only way to be different is through Him, and that is why I don’t want to leave Him for even a second.  Because last year, I did.  Far too often.  This year, I want my real life to be there, face down, at His feet.  Because I don’t want that to be what I do.  I want that to be who I am!
As Paul Tripp said: “The new year has no power to produce a new you, but that's exactly what grace does; new acceptance, new identity & new power”
I am going to live this year knowing that He accepts me, and no one else matters.  I am going to live in His power this year, knowing that there is no other power capable of anything.  I am going to live with my new identity as “that guy”, the guy who makes absolutely everything about Jesus Christ.  Because I want to live, not for 365 days, but for eternity, in His grace.
I am not sure what life will bring in 2013, but I know what my real life will be.  If you need me, I am not sure where I will be, but I know where I will be: laying face down at Jesus’ feet. 
Where will you be?

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