Tuesday, January 01, 2008

New Year

New Year resolution. Hmm. How many New Year resolutions have I made in my life? A bunch. Actually bigger than a bunch. Maybe a whole bushel. (Been looking at seeds for my garden, can you tell?)

There are the usual resolutions: lose weight, eat right, take time off, watch less tv, read more, pray more, …

Some of those I’ve kept, some I’ve not.

But this year I feel the need for something different…something… well new! I resolve this year to learn something new: a new way to see the world, a new way to be a leader, explore some new way for the church to be a church, or maybe something about how I order my own life, my own priorities. I suspect you will hear about it if I do learn something new.

Do you have any resolutions you’d like to share?

One thing I do know is if we share them with someone else, we are more likely to keep them. Mutual accountability can be a wonderful way to keep us on track. Do you have someone in your life who holds you to your word? Who reminds you of your commitments? Who offers support, encouragement or a needed kick in the pants to help you keep on track?

I value those persons and those relationships in my life. They help keep me on the right path and call me back when I stray. In my life, the church community has often been a place of mutual accountability. It involves speaking the truth in love. It includes appropriate boundaries combined with tenacious (stubborn) commitment to relationship. It means loving someone enough to tell them the truth (particularly when it is hard and painful) and then sticking with them through the messy process of change. It means moving through forgiveness to real change and transformation.

Change. Maybe that is what the new year offers me (and you). The chance to change, to start over, to begin again, to move on, forward.. New year, new day…

“Behold, I make all things new.”

May this be a blessed new year.

Mike

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