a resolution.

  2010 was one for the books.  Then again, I guess every year is.  2011 will have its own story to tell, 363 more days until it's complete.  Not sure why I'm looking forward to this year so much, but I am.  I really have no idea what's in store, I'm just excited.  The only explanation I can think of is that God has taught me so much this past year, that in this new one I have a new perspective, a new sense of hope in this life that he's given me to live.  And not that I think about death often, but its reality is something I've found myself pondering every now and then.  Not about the dying part, but about the life I've lived leading up to it (who knows how short or long that will be), and what will be said of it once it's over.  What is the story that has been written?
  A verse in the Bible that keeps coming to my conscious mind is 1 Corinthians 4:12, "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial..."  Just because something is allowed doesn't mean that it is the best choice.  Especially if it causes someone else to stumble, then it definitely isn't.  Why God has put this on my heart so persistently, I'm not quite sure yet. Maybe some choices will need to be made in the near future, maybe I will be faced with situations I haven't before and it's preparation. My uncertainty about the purpose of that particular verse goes right along with my uncertainty about this upcoming year and what it has in store.
  I've never been one for New Year's resolutions, they seem to have lost their significance and greater purpose.  I feel that they've become something that we just do because, well, that's what you do at the beginning of each year.  But what percent actually can look back and say 'Hey, I stuck with it the entire year and was successful?'  Not many.  However, I do believe that God calls us to be continually reflecting, coming to a greater understanding of ourselves and our God, and thus continually changing and growing. 
  The verse in 1 Corinthians reminds us that all things we do, big or small, are to be for the glory of God, that His name be lifted up. To know I am blessed in good times or challenging times. To know God refines us through the fire.  To know His plan is greater than my own.  To be grateful, because like love, gratitude begets gratitude.  To know that He is a living God that is active and working in my life, that my life will bear fruit now and even after I am gone. 
  That's my "New Year's resolution."