Well here we are. It's the last day of 2009. How was your 2009? What happened to you in 2009? What life changing things did you set out to do? Who's life did you change? How did your life change? What goals did you accomplish? What was the hardest thing about 2009? The funnest? The most painful? Seriously, what do you remember about 2009?
If you're like most people, you don't remember much about the last year of your life. Sure there are some events that will stand out to you. Maybe even some that you will remember for the rest of your life. But for the most part, you won't remember much about this, or sadly, any other year of your life. It's not fun to come to this conclusion. But if we're honest with one another, we can all admit that it's true. Our lives simply aren't memorable.
Thats the great thing about New Year's. We get a chance to start over. For one day every year we look ahead with extreme optimism about our lives. Anything is possible. We make resolutions and declarations that THIS year, THIS time we will be different. Our lives will be better. They will be the way they should. WE will be the people we've always known we could be. Starting NOW.
But then we get back to work or school or just to our regular lives and something happens. Our lives get in the way our lives. The mundane and routine take over, reminding us that we are still the same people we were yesterday. We still have the same struggles as we did yesterday. We still have the same problems, the same personality, the same flaws, the same... well, the same everything. We come face to face with realization that who we are and what we have hasn't changed with the new year.
This is when we usually make a fatal mistake. We give up. We listen to the voices in our head that tell us we were being overly optamistic about what we capable of. We let them convince us that we were just being sentimental about the New Year and made some unrealistic resolutions. We let them convince us that we really can' be THAT good. That our lives can't really get THAT much better. And so we settle back into who we have always been. Because we believed the voices. We believed the lie.
This year I hope you will stand with me and shut the voices that tell you these lies up. This year I hope you will the voice of your Creator. The voice that says you are more than a conqueror. The voice that says you are beautifuly and wonderfully created. The voice that says you are worth dying for. The voice that says He wants to give you an abundant, significant life. The voice that says you can do all things through Him. THAT is voice we must listen to. But it won't be easy.
You see that voice is said to be "still" and "small." And a still, small voice is difficult to hear over the boisterous lies that plague our inner thoughts. But we must hear it. We must remind ourselves that it is there. That we must silence the loudness of the everyone and everything else. That we know those voices are telling us lies because when you don't have anything of merrit to say all you can do is shout. It's the quiet, humble voices that are worth listening to. The ones that don't INSIST on being heard are usually the only ones worth hearing. Listen for those voices with me this year. Those one want us to be the people we know we can be. Lets listen to them. Lets listen to Him.
