Here we go again. I feel like I just got used to writing 2011 and now I need to remember to write 2012. This new year is kind of like an empty Operation Christmas Child truck--ready to be filled up with blessings.
Today is the day to start resolutions but I'm not very good at making them. I have goals in my head but I'm not good at putting them on paper and I'm definitely not good at breaking them down into manageable steps.
I've been listening to an audiobook version of John Piper's book "When I Don't Desire God" and am challenged anew with the need to spend more time reading the Bible and also memorizing Scripture. I've been dreaming about the possibility of memorizing large chunks of God's Word--like the book of Ephesians--because Piper gives a system for how to do that by memorizing a verse a day. Yet I'm hesitant to commit to that because I know how weak my resolve can be and how easily I fail. And I do so hate to fail.
So on this brink of the new year it's easier just to maintain the status quo. Oh, I'm planning to prayerfully ask God for an increase in Operation Christmas Child shoebox numbers--I refuse to stagnate in that area. But to make a larger commitment to hard core Bible reading and memory scares me more than asking God for a few thousand more shoeboxes.
Why should I think that He is any less capable of taking my feeble efforts to read His Word and maximizing them than He is to produce greater numbers of shoeboxes when I ask Him to? As I ponder this, I think it's really about what I consider valuable enough to spend my days seeking from God.
So this year I resolve to not only ask God to produce more Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes here in Northwestern PA but to ask Him to let me know Him better and know His love and love Him in greater ways.
I resolve to call to Him to "show me great and mighty things" not only in the shoebox realm but in a relational way. I resolve to come to the end of 2012 knowing Him better and loving Him more and being more confident of His love for me.
And I want to memorize at least some of the verses in Ephesians along the way.
I am resolved.
I think this is God's real goal for all of us. What happens on this side of the box is important! He wants to draw us near, and He uses OCC to do that here and abroad. Packing shoeboxes for others isn't really all about them, as you & I well know...
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