Happy New Year

I know I am just a few days late to write a Happy New Year's entry, but the first few days of this new year proved just as crazy as the last month or two of last year. I guess things really do not change with the change of thecalender. So, I am going to take a few moments now and jot some thoughts about New Years and all that fun jazz.

Now, I am not someone who has been real big on making resolutions. I would attribute most of this to the fact that I am disorganized and forgetful. I usually forget what I decided to be my resolution after a few days. Yes, I have tried to write them down. This is where the disorganized reality comes into play. I lose the list as soon as I forget the resolutions. So, I have just given up on the whole idea. This makes life much easier, but nothing in my life gets changed (on the large scale at least).

This year is a little different. I have decided to make a challenge to my whole church and to my self. This is a type of resolution, but more a need to see things at work in our lives. I have challenged the church (First Presbyterian, Carthage) to do two things right now and for the whole year. Number one is read the Bible everyday. I hope most people were already accomplishing this resolution so it will be easy to accomplish. I did not give any large scale reading outline. There was not challenge to read the whole Bible in a year (cool idea if someone wanted to accomplish that challenge) or read certain books at specific times. I just challenged people to read the Bible.

The second challenge was to look for God at work in their lives each and everyday. At the end of the year, we can look back and see God's activity, but we need to see what He is doing right now around us. So, we read the Bible to help us know how God works in people's lives than we look for Him working in our lives. After we find Him working, we join in with Him. I hope this to be the ultimate challenge. I working with God at all times. I believe this is the desire that God really has for us. It would be how things worked out with Jesus. People saw what He was doing and they joined His effort. Than they continued working for His desire.

These are my challenges for the start of the year. Many would call these New Year's Resolutions, but I would prefer to call them challenges to be undertaken.