It’s been several months since I have written a blog post so I figured New Years Day would be a good way to start out 2012. No resolution…I made a resolution to give those up a few years ago. I just have to organize these random thoughts that run through my head.
I don’t know if any of you have ever noticed this but New Years seems to be a time when people like to put their house in order and make resolutions for how they are going to live differently. As I have read the posts on Facebook, Twitter, emails and new articles I have been a little disappointed to see what we really put as the most important things in our lives. Here is a top 10 list from a paper in Pittsburgh.
- Spend more time with family and friends
- Take time to get fit
- Tame the bulge
- Quit smoking
- Enjoy life more
- Quit drinking
- Get out of debt
- Learn something new
- Help others
- Get organized
Several others include: Saving more money, reading more books, take a cruise, seeing a national park/monument, take in a Broadway play and not sacrificing today for the future.
While all of these are fine, in fact some of them are fantastic…number 9, on the above list, should be moved way up. I don’t want to sound too much like Tom Cruise in the movie Jerry Maguire, but he was right. “We live in a cynical world…a cynical, cynical world”. We are selfish. We focus so much of our time and attention on ourselves, our happiness and our comfort. We say we want to serve, but our lives get in the way.
Question – Have you ever done anything that truly required risking yourselves to better the world? We say we want to leave this place better than we found it, but we are too busy caring for ourselves to actually do something about it. How about we come up with a new list for 2012? Maybe it could look something like this.
- Live with significance
- Sacrifice my desires for others.
- Serve more faithfully.
- Give without expecting anything in return.
- See the world through God’s eyes.
Let’s make 2012 a year to serve others and leave an eternal impact.