Resolutions

The turning of a new year is a strange phenomenon. A random calendar date causes us to look forward and back: to evaluate who we are, where we’ve been and what we would like to see change in the future. Resolutions are made and new ventures are pursued based on the psychology of the marking of time. His mercies are new every morning…what if we approached each day with the Lord as though it were New Year’s Day? I have my resolutions for this year and for today.

Emmanuel

“I love Jesus, I just hate Christmas,” he said. I thought about it and replied, “I guess the two have become separate.” Later I pondered how the coming of God to live among us, to be one of us so that He could explain, reveal and embody His love to us…how can that get lost? What would Christmas look like if it didn’t become something else? If it were always and only about the mystery and celebration of God with us: Jesus?

Family

We sat in a circle, each having picked a present from under the tree. The presents were to be “from the heart” and for the group, something that revealed more of our heart. I unwrapped an old shoe, the last one shoe of Jimmy the paraplegic who is in my life group. He holds on to the shoe because it represents both the question “why?” and the grace and power of God. It was a powerful moment as the old shoe revealed more of Jimmy’s heart. One man played a song on a piano that hadn’t been played in years, because of his broken heart the music had died. He gave us a song as his gift and in turn we helped heal his broken heart. As the night concluded it was observed that “this is family, the most intimate Christmas we might hope to experience.” The only thing we have in common is Jesus and a commitment to one another.

Surprise

For over a year I’ve been planning my wife’s surprise party where I asked all of her friends who were able to surprise her on a cruise. A close friend assisted me in the ruse and invited Jody to go on the trip as though it would be just the two of them. I feigned disappointment as though the friend had stole my opportunity to do anything for her birthday and so I would just throw a small party the night before they left. Ironically, her friend’s husband contracted meningitis the night before the big trip and Jody felt for sure the trip would be postponed. That’s when I had to spill the beans that in fact it was a surprise I had been working on for a year. Who would have imagined that our close friend would contract meningitis the night before sailing? We often times make our plans very carefully and yet God is the author of them down to the details. We can live in disappointment or we can anticipate his unique design. Sometimes the biggest detail we fail to account for is Him.