A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

2 CHRONICLES 31:21

Charles Lamb said "New Year's Day is every man's birthday." We're just a couple of weeks away from changing the calendar, so we've all got a birthday coming up. We'll all have a chance to reflect a little bit on the past 365 days and, hopefully, focus a lot on the next 365 days. If we choose, we can wipe slate clean from the past and begin a new day. There's nothing special about January 1, of course, but there is something special about the decision to break away from old habits and develop new ones. It can be done any day -- January 1 is as good a day as any. The important thing is to devote oneself to doing better and trying harder.

It was said of Hezekiah: "In everything he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered." (2 Chronicles 31:21)

My resolutions for 2009 are centered in this verse. I want to seek God more and to serve him better.

ONE WEEK TO LIVE

JOHN 13:1

What would you do if you knew you had only week to live? Would you go away? Would you go home? Would you do some last minute sinning, or some last minute repenting? Would you be sad? Angry? Hopeful? Afraid? How would you spend those final hours?

Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. (John 13:1)

When Jesus had one week to live, he chose to wash his disciples' feet. He did the work of a common slave, ministering to those who were closest to him. He washed their feet (John 13), he comforted them (John 14), he encouraged them (John 15-16), prayed for them (John 17), and then he died for them. He spent the last week of his life fulfilling his purpose; he spent the last week of his life being a servant.

...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)

You and me, we have a week to live: this week — and most probably hundreds more. I want to spend this week fulfilling my purpose, doing that which is most important in terms of eternity: serving Christ by serving others.

AN UNLIKELY AMBITION

1 CORINTHIANS 1:18

I came across this story and I am going to be using it in an upcoming sermon but I could not wait to share it.

It's the story of Ronald Mallet, a man who lost his father to a smoking related illness 53 years ago. When his father died, his lifelong quest began: to build a time machine that would enable him to travel into the past, see his father again, and warn him to change his lifestyle.

It sounds crazy, I know. If Ronald Mallet was a wild-eyed Emmet Brown type (that was Christopher Lloyd in the Back to the Future trilogy), it would be easy to laugh him off as a nutcase.

But he's nothing like Emmet Brown. He is a tenured theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut, only the 79th African American to earn a doctorate in physics. Why did he choose physics? Because of his crazy dream: he wanted to find a way to travel through time, because he desperately wanted to see his father once again.

He hid his obsession hidden for decades, knowing that if the secret got out, he would become a laughingstock. So he worked at home each night in solitude, and along the way made some amazing discoveries -- discoveries that the academic community is beginning to pay attention to.

Read his story if you have time; it's fascinating. It also illustrates how there are many things that drive us to choose the career we choose -- and if the motive is strong enough, it can drive us to do the seemingly impossible.

I can't imagine devoting my life to something as crazy as time travel. Instead, I've devoted my life (we've devoted our lives) to something that many find crazier -- the foolishness of preaching.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Our calling is not to rewrite the past but to rewrite the future. Our words can change a destiny; our work makes a difference for all eternity. So let's devote ourselves with the focus and determination to this foolish task.