Looking Back
2014 has been a milestone year in my life. God sovereignly transformed my life sometime around Easter in the biggest way possible… He saved me from my own self-righteousness and unbelief. What I had previously thought was the Christian life, was really a false sense of hope and a works-based religion. You can read about that in My Personal Testimony.
Consistent with being a “new man”, my desires have changed radically this year. I spend a lot of my free time reading about Theology or watching sermons online. I have endeavored to “catch up” on the meat of Christian faith that I have missed out on, and it has been good. I have read God’s Word more consistently and with more fervor than ever in my life. I am truly thankful to my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ for this year.
A Different Kind of Resolution
My wife read an article about closing out the year writing letters to Jesus and placing them in your stockings before packing them away for the year. We thought it would be a good tradition to try out, so we all wrote letters of resolution to Jesus. In that letter I wrote my sincere commitments to serve and know Christ. It included overall statements, such as the desire to serve God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I also wrote practical things, such as continuing my daily time of reading the Bible, praying and studying.
So my public New Year’s Resolutions this year look more like changes in habit that I would like to implement in my life.
1) Write at least 100 words per day
Writing has helped me over the past year, not only in organization, but in handling stress, keeping track of ideas and being able to look back and remember days past. This is actually an easy target which is intentional. Forming the habit is the hard part. Once that is set, you can expand on it more easily. I have kept a journal pretty consistently for the past year and my journal writing will be included in the 100 words per day. It will also include blog posts and any other recreational writing I might embark upon.
2) Run the Pensacola Marathon
This is pretty straightforward. I thought about setting a goal of miles per week or something of that nature. However, setting a goal of running in a marathon has the benefit of requiring weekly training. I have the past year off from most running, so now it is time to get back out on the streets!
3) Finish memorizing the book of Ephesians
I meet with a men’s group on a sometimes weekly basis to read God’s Word (we started in Ephesians) and pray for one another. During that time I decided it would be cool to try to memorize Ephesians. I’ve done the first one and a half chapters (probably a little rusty right now), but I’d like to finish the whole book. It is only six chapters so it shouldn’t be impossible to accomplish. The benefits of this are huge! We are called as Christians to meditate on God’s Word, day and night. It is much easier to do when you actually know His Word. Ephesians is also extremely dense Theologically, so I’ll be getting a lot of “bang for the buck.”
4) Get out of debt (finally)
We really fell off the bandwagon of becoming debt free this year. I really hate that. So this year, we are really going to do it!
5) Read 25 Books
I’ve really enjoyed reading this year and so I wanted to set some goals for myself. According to Goodreads I read a measly 14 books this year. I have a friend that reads about a hundred books a year, so I should be able to crank out 25. To keep on track I’m looking at two books per month plus the Bible, which I’m reading over the entire year.
Happy New Year
Well, I hope you and your families have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s break. Now… get back to work!