I love the feeling that each New Year brings as the clock strikes midnight and a clean slate begins. I am filled with awakened ambition that has seemed to hibernate those last few months of the year. Healthy eating, routines, and any sense of normalcy to our schedule gets thrown to the wayside as if the joy of the season writes an excuse to ignore all things requiring effort!
January 1 arrives….and ok….maybe it even becomes the 2nd or 3rd depending on what family plans we have those last few days of winter break. But when that infamous day comes that we have decided to start our “new year” I take off with full effort and dedication to become a better “Me”. For each of us this poses a different plan- losing weight, looking younger, making more money, taking vacations, learning a new hobby, being a better person… There is so much pressure really, to write resolutions that we can pretty much guarantee will fail by the first month or two of the year. And yet there is a reason why it is important for all of us to have purpose to our days, and not just float through life year after year without significance.
Meaningless…the opposite of purpose. A word that by Webster’s definition is to have no meaning or significance. But the argument in our culture is “What defines significance”? Many will search for it through the eyes of others. “What do they think I am worth”? Others will search for ‘things’ to make them feel significant. Money, status, looks, material items. Whatever the goals were at the beginning of our year- why is it that so often we end the year without feeling any more fulfilled than that first day of January?
Our Heavenly Father knit each one of us together in our mother’s womb. The number of hairs on our head were counted and the details of each life were written into His story. The part that was left up to us, was to fill the space inside our hearts with God’s only son- or fill it with other things of our choosing as we try and fill the void.
As Believers, we are called to be the salt and the light in this life, and neither of those things become what they are intended for without action. Salt is just salt if left in a bottle. And light is just light unless God sets the sun in the sky or we turn the switch on the wall. It’s hard to make a difference in this world for Him if we don’t strive to become a better “Me” year after year. But the difference between the world we live in and the world through His eyes, is that- filled with Him- we don’t need empty resolutions to make us complete! No amount of physical change or social status quo will impact the world we live in for eternal purposes. Our bodies will all turn to dust one day, and things acquired will be left behind. It is the relationships, the love, the kindness, the forgiveness, the moments we made intentional for Jesus Christ- that make our years significant.
So my resolutions for 2017: To remember my significance in Christ alone…to be intentional in my relationships…to be salt and light with a purpose…and to seek His plan for my life over my own. With solitary effort, this all will fail. But with Christ- ALL things are possible!
With love- April
Ephesians 1:17-19
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he had called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.