Staring a New Year in the Face

For the past few days I've been mopey. Do you know what I mean? I guess I could chalk it up to nostalgia with its wistful regrets of what I didn't accomplish during the past year. I might even have faced the doldrums because staring the New Year in the face makes me wonder if I'll do something of worth.

For the last couple of years I have chosen a word to characterize the upcoming year, rather than set goals and resolutions I will break or not accomplish. But this year I didn't have a sense for a word until I headed to bed last night. The word, diligent, came to mind. I thought on it a bit and then drifted off.

Then as I read the last entry in my One Year Bible this morning, the last verse on the page convinced me.

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates." Proverbs 31:30-31

Now I'm not a big fan of the Proverbs 31 woman. Not because she's bad. She's just so hard to imitate. This lady is so dog-gone perfect that it's annoying.

However, these two verses seemed to fit with the word diligent perfectly in my mind. Diligent can be defined as characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort. Other forms of the word held these synonyms: active, engaged, busy, persevering application, and determinedly.

What many do is strive to attain success or to be noticed which is really just superficial. I've felt pulled toward this trap. The verse speaks of charm and beauty - superficial and not lasting. But what kind of woman receives praise? The one who fears the Lord.

Fear of the Lord isn't a cowering in this instance. This kind of fear is a respect and reverence. A remembering of who should be first. A reminder of who guides us to the success He would have for us.

Here's where my word came into play. The only way to experience the fruit and be praised for my own works is to be diligent in working out God's plan for me.

As I applied this word to different areas of my life, it seemed to fit.

I want to give earnest and engaged effort when it comes to my family. They deserve that.
I want to be steady and active in my work at school with all students and teachers.
I want to display persevering application to reaching others with the gospel.
I want to give earnest and active effort to writing God's message through my stories.

The list continues as I think of different aspects of my life. I suppose I could wrap them altogether by simply saying: I want to be diligent for God this year. I wish for diligence to characterize me, not just a busyness for being busy sake. I also don't want my diligence to be misplaced in striving for the superficial. Nor do I want to work at tasks halfheartedly. The definition of diligent seems to refute anything but focused, all-out engagement.

So, that's what I'm posting on the little board on my desk - Diligent. May I come to the end of 2017 and be able to say I've given my best attempt at being characterized as diligent for God.

Has God shown you some verse or word that might challenge you this year?  Feel free to share in the comments.

And Happy God-filled New Year!

I'm Still Saying Merry Christmas

Just the other day we were having a discussion about saying Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas in my Sunday school class. One of the guys said that a sales lady wished him happy holidays and he returned with Merry Christmas. He joked that he felt like he was witnessing to her just because he actually told her Merry Christmas.

We then got into a discussion about what non-believers even celebrate at Christmas. Let's face it, even the word Christmas itself let's you know what the celebration is all about. It would seem that those who didn't want to celebrate Christ's birth on December 25th would just skip it altogether.

Honestly, what do those who don't celebrate Christ's birth tell their children? It's all about Santa Claus? Saddens me to think of what their holidays revolve around.

But let me be politically incorrect or whatever you want to call it. I will say, Merry Christmas. In fact, I often tell others to have a Christ-filled Christmas.

It is sad to me that we have come to this in our day. We're told not to offend others by pushing our beliefs by simply wishing someone a Merry Christmas.

Let me just say that I celebrate Christmas as a time when God looked down and said, "I love them so much, I'm sending my best gift." I praise God as the angels on that night - Glory to God in the highest. We didn't deserve the gift. But the God of the universe had this plan all along to send Jesus to pay for our sins and make a way for us to be reconciled to God.

Because my eternal hope rests in the Christ whose birth we celebrate at Christmas time, I will not mince words. I will wish you a Merry Christmas and pray that you too know the hope found in Jesus Christ. Our only hope. Our blessed hope.

Merry Christ-filled Christmas!

Hope is Wrapped Up in a Person

No doubt you too have been watching as the fires swept through the beautiful Smoky Mountains and surrounding towns. Such a disaster and some of it caused by people setting the fires for attention. I won't even go there.

We (my family) had relatives and friends to lose their homes. We also watched as they reported on places we had visited which were destroyed. We live less than an hour away from the area.

Honestly, as the reporters would stick the microphone into the face of one of the evacuees, I cringed. Always the same insensitive question: "So how do you feel right now?" I understand that people wracked with emotion or falling apart makes for good TV. But I truly winced every time and didn't want the person to be exploited just for their reaction.

But God. Yep, He showed up in this disaster and in the reports seen on TV. I will applaud the stations for not cutting Him out when mentioned.

One man was obviously drained and emotional, yet he proclaimed the hope he had no matter if he had lost all his possessions. His hope was in the Lord. I practically cheered. What a testimony!

That man wasn't the only one who talked about their hope in Jesus Christ. Many spoke of prayers being the best way to help.

My friends, you can lose every material possession, including house, car, and clothes but still have hope and joy. Why? Because those who have Christ as their Savior and Lord, Leader and Boss, have the hope of glory. They can have a joy in the middle of the hardest times. Their joy doesn't depend upon anything earthly. They have the promise of eternity. They have the promise that they are never alone. And God can bring good from any circumstance.

As my pastor/hubby says: "God's kind of hope isn't a pie in the sky, I hope it will happen, kind of hope. God's kind of hope is confident expectation."

God sent us hope at Christmas time, and He wrapped it up in the person of Jesus. Let's review that hope:
Jesus paid our sin debt so we have the hope of a relationship with God.
Jesus conquered death by rising from the dead, which gives us victory too over something that seems hopeless like death.
Jesus prepares a place for us to live with him throughout all eternity. That's hope!
Jesus declared that he would be with us always. That grants a hope-filled life here.

This God kind of hope is evident, especially when people experience trials. Let's face it, Christian sisters and brothers, if we truly hold to the hope God has granted, we will act differently than those who don't possess that hope.

Sure, even those filled with Christ-hope who lost their homes and barely escaped with their lives still felt loss and had moments of sorrow. But as the Bible says, they don't have to grieve as those who have no hope.

Continue to pray for and help the people of Gatlinburg and the surrounding areas. Be on the look-out for when you might share the Hope you have - Jesus in you, the hope of glory!