2013

New Beginnings

Life and time are interesting concepts.  I was at a friend's birthday party a few days ago and people began discussing the different ways they viewed turning 25.  One person said thinking of it as being a quarter of a century made him feel old.  Another person mentioned thinking of his age in terms of a gas gauge and that if he was lucky his needle was at 2/3 a tank.  The next day my grandparents came over for dinner.  My grandfather grew up on a farm, is a former marine, Korean war veteran, car salesman, and worked the majority of his years in a Dupont plant where he was exposed to asbestos.  He now has less than 40% lung function.  The man who 4-5 years ago could still fix anything or build anything can now hardly walk from the dinner table to the couch without gasping for air.  At dinner he was asking my father about the benefit of using oxygen tanks.  He wanted to know if the oxygen would improve his quality of life or merely extend the time he had left on this earth.  He didn't want the oxygen if it wasn't going to improve the quality of his life, he decided he would just let nature takes its course.  That was a very sobering conversation for me to listen to.  Think how precious time must be to him.  What does that feel like to be so aware that you don't have much time left.

When I dwell on my life, it has been a blur, it does not feel like I have been alive for 26 years.  A lot of my life has been fairly uneventful.  School and the time I have wasted in that trap fills most of it.  But what have a done for the Kingdom of Christ?  Three weeks of mission trips, quiet time, small groups, church services, and the occasional volunteering/donating.  Nothing substantial.

Today I was reading Job 4 and one of Job's friends was explaining how fragile and short life is.  The commentary in the study bible talked about time and what the hours of our life account to.  It challenged the reader to tally how much time they spend a day doing different activities and suggested it is possible we spend too much time in recreation.  I was thinking about this while walking my dog.  It's the norm in America... work to get your paycheck to spend entertaining yourself... tv, movies, sporting events, concerts, amusement parks, social media, reading, restaurants, hobbies, vacations, etc.  Those things are not bad but those things can get in the way of our purpose here on earth.  We spend our life glued to screens.  We always want to do something fun, but having fun is not the purpose of life.  This is nothing new to you I'm sure.  It was nothing new to me but what I did realize is how powerful of a trap entertainment/fun is.  We know its there but we still fall victim to it.  We are aware of our purpose but we get lulled into selfishly seeking pleasure over and over again.  Later in the day, while on facebook, (yes I was wasting time entertaining myself) I saw an interesting post.  A friend had uploaded a picture of a list of goals she had written down for herself in 2005.  One of the ambitions as she called them was "have a life that counts - affect people and make an impact while I'm on earth"

I have been praying for God to help me genuinely love Him and others.  It has become one of my New Years Resolutions for 2013.  I want to add to it.  I want to submit my life to God.  I want to be obedient to His calling, no matter what He says.  I want to be willing to do His will so that my life may be used to give Him glory and make an impact for His Kingdom.  I don't want to waste my life doing something His doesn't want me to do or entertaining myself.

I want big things out of 2013.  I hope to get a job in collegiate strength and conditioning, be able to buy my own car and support myself without the help of my parents, and possibly/hopefully compete in the American Open weightlifting meet in December.  Above any and all of those things, I hope to continue to more intimately know my God, I hope to see a lot of friends and loved ones come to know Jesus Christ as both their Lord and Savior, and I hope God will continue to change my heart so that I will passionately seek to live my life in a way that radically honors Him.

Love genuinely/Make an impact 2013