I want

As this year comes to an end and we prepare for the beginning of a new one, I want to adopt the attitude of looking for the good, the beautiful, the holy in all of life. I want to celebrate the beauty of every sunset. I want to marvel at the child who giggles with abandon and savor the joy of it. I want to focus on the good that is in every person, seeing them as the handiwork of God. I want to make the most of every moment, recognizing that life is a gift I do not deserve. I want to experience love and give love. And as best I am able, I want people to see Jesus in me.

memories

For many of us, traveling the path toward spiritual and emotional wholeness requires that we learn to remember our pasts differently. We’ve fallen into the pattern of traversing the same old unhealthy memory ruts again and again. The original wounds may not have been of our doing, but we’re the ones who choose to keep going back to them repeatedly in ways that only perpetuate the hurt. The memories we choose to repetitively relive have a way of not only defining who we were, but also they can come to shape who we are now and who we will become. The good news of the gospel of grace is that we can choose to no longer allow painful memories to dominate our thinking which results in our continuously perceiving ourselves, our relationships, and our world in a negative way. There’s the old saying “forgive and forget,” and I do believe it’s absolutely essential that we forgive, but I’m not sure it’s possible to totally forget, nor do I believe it’s necessarily wise. Though we may not be able to completely forget, we don’t always have to remember, and when we do remember, we can choose to focus on good memories and let them come to define us. And if we have trouble remembering many positive experiences in life, we can intentionally begin to create new and meaningful memories. This Christmas—I wish you new and meaningful memories.

never pray for . . .

Brian Tome writes in his book Welcome to the Revolution: “Never pray for something you aren’t willing to be the answer for.” Wow. What if we were to take that seriously? I know my prayers would get a lot shorter—at least initially. What if we really were to come to believe that God wants us to be the answer to the prayers we pray, that God actually wants to work through us? Could it be that one of the main reasons for praying is that it enables us to get attuned to God’s will and empowered to accomplish it?