Happy New Year!

      I slept right through it...even though there was apparently some Costa Rican celebration going on in this house as Catalina talked with her family, counting down in Spanish, while watching the ball drop. Usually there are fireworks on either side of us, but I didn't hear those either (if they happened at all.) I hope your celebration is full of rest, fun, and excited anticipation of what this year holds.
       We all look forward to good things to come. None of us expects to be in turmoil or face serious sickness. We don't look forward to the new year and plan on financial failure, the breakup of a marriage, or a horrible, life-altering accident. The past three years were full of those types of surprises for me. My dad's sudden sickness and death followed by my mom's sudden cancer and surgery were certainly not on the list of things I would have looked forward to when thinking about those new years to come. We should, and must, give God control of our lives, come what may. I'm not saying we should not make resolutions; I believe it is very important to think about our lives and seek to make improvements.  Still, ultimately, I am convinced that God is in control, no matter what.
      My cousin put this post on FB: "My New Year's resolution is to be more positive and less sarcastic...I'll probably screw that up within 48 hours!!" Feel the same? That's usually my attitude when I make my new year's resolutions. I rattle off some standard response....lose weight, exercise more, read my Bible daily, be kind to strangers, take more bubble baths, take better care of my flower beds....you get the idea. This year, though, I put a little more thought into the whole thing.
      Ever think about the word resolve? It is a verb (action word) defined as: To come to a definite or earnest decision about something, determine (to do something.) Hmmm. I like that. By default that means a resolution is a determination to do something. So, I ask you, have you made any definite decisions followed with the determination to do something about them? Some people make a list. Some people randomly state something too enormous to even attempt. Some people think it's a silly tradition, while one person I know takes her list of resolutions seriously enough to review and evaluate them at the end of the year before making a new list. Yes, I did make some resolutions. AND, in an effort to be more transparent and honest with you about what is happening in my own life - whether you want to know or not - here's my list...in no particular order:

1. Follow my nutritionist's and doctor's advice and keep doing what they say, no matter how hard it gets.
2. Memorize one passage of scripture each month. (verses and passages, not books!)
3. Complete and post two blog entries each month.
4. Daily be aware of my relationship with Jesus.
5. Find fun things to do with my husband and my friends.

Why these five things?
1. I can't stand the fact that my 77 year-old mother, who has had bladder cancer and serious surgery, is really healthier than I am. I'm too young to feel so old. (By the way, she is doing quite well. Her blood work and CT scan came back clear in December. Praise the Lord!)
2. I don't like to think about what life would be like for me if our Bibles were taken away - would I be able to recall scripture? We talk about this all the time. The church in some other country where Bibles are contraband. Where people tear out pages and pass them around. I take this precious book for granted. Add to that the fact that both of my grandmothers died from Alzheimer's disease; I want to increase my brain power!
3. God has graciously provided this outlet for me, and I don't take advantage of it. Whether anyone reads this blog or not, I get so much from the writing of it! However, I do pray that someone somewhere gets a blessing from it too. (Send me a comment if you do!)
4. I am tired of routine living and not living in the fullness of my salvation. I am tired of standard Christian living. Jesus is anything BUT standard and routine!
5. It's time to get out of the rut and enjoy life! It is passing far too quickly. I will be 54 years old this year. Now, THAT'S hard to believe! There are adventures to be taken and moments to be treasured that I have been letting slip through my fingers like sand.

     Last week I picked up my Bible to read. Not to study and prepare a lesson, but to read. I honestly didn't know where to start. I sat there with the Bible in my hands, thumbing through it, checking the table of contents, asking the Lord to give me a starting place. Surely, Lord, you don't mean to start - again - in Genesis!? That's a resolution I have made over and over again - read the whole Bible, beginning to end, in a year. There are plans written by scholars for such a grand task. Besides, there's all those lists of begats and begots. I have failed at the task of reading the Bible from cover to cover so many times before that I don't want to start now just to find myself a failure once again. 

That's when God spoke.
    He began by planting the word "beginning" in my mind. A new year, a new beginning. The start of something to be completed. The first step. "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start," as the song goes. Open and read. All these thoughts were going through my head. So, I did. I opened my Bible to the book of Genesis. Still reluctant to do this, I procrastinated by reading the notes at the beginning. That's when it happened. You know those commercials when someone is the 10,000th customer and the confetti falls, cameras flash, congratulations are shouted and the customer is standing there smiling and baffled about the whole event? That was me as I read these words:

"Begin...start...commence...open...There's something refreshing and optimistic about these words, whether they refer to the dawn of a new day, the birth of a child, the prelude of a symphony, or the first miles of a family vacation. Free of problems and full of promise, beginnings stir hope and imaginative visions of the future. Genesis means "beginnings" or "origin," and it unfolds the record of the beginning of the world, of human history, of family, of civilization, of salvation. It is the story of God's purpose and plan for his creation. As the book of beginnings, Genesis set the stage for the entire Bible." (Life Application Study Bible)

     So, as this new year begins, I encourage you to embark on your new adventure with the Lord. Soak up the idea that this is a new beginning, the start of something big, the "dawn of a new day." Give some serious thought and prayer to that list of resolutions you are making. Will they be things that deepen and strengthen your walk with the Lord? Will Jesus be glorified when you sit down on December 31, 2013, to review and reevaluate what you set out to accomplish in 365 days? I encourage you to make a definite decision and act upon the determination to see it happen. I hope you will walk with the Lord this year in a fresh and exciting way. I hope you will look back a year from now and marvel at how God reveals himself to you this year. I wish you a Happy New Year and an imaginative vision for the future!