Happy New Year!

It is the time of resolutions. Again. How did you do on yours' last year? I can't even remember mine. But I am still going to make one this year. And I really want to keep it. This year's resolution for me is one word. Gratitude. I want to walk in it, breath it, and live it out. I want to see what the world looks like when I am wearing gratitude glasses everywhere I go.

It's so easy to look at the negative, and to judge, and to let situations and people turn sour. But it's not nearly as easy when you are always seeing what you have to be grateful for. And even the good stuff, the stuff you like, it's so easy to take for granted - to forget how much it really means. I want to really appreciate and be grateful for those things too.

Even the basics, like being able to turn on a tap and drink clean water, or having a toilet that flushes, or being able to take a long hot shower. And how about having a warm, dry place to sleep and plenty to eat every night - what wonderful comforts are those!

And when I think about my family and friends - the people I love and care about all over the world - it seems like no one could ever ask for more. But look at me - I live in a beautiful town, I have a beautiful wife, an amazing son and a great job at a wonderful church. How spoiled can you get!

Of course there's lots that is difficult in my life too. There's been, are, and will be challenges and trials - as much as I can handle. I can easily let my thinking drift over to those things that hurt, and get stuck like molasses on the wound. I can let my thoughts fester on some fear or wrong and just go around and around and on to nowhere. That's a choice. That's a choice I don't want to make anymore.

When we lift our eyes to Heaven, our thoughts follow. Then our actions and our whole lives. I know when I am grateful to God then my eyes are on Him. I know when my eyes are on Him then they are not on me and my problems. When my mind is filled with light there is no room in it for darkness. Of course while it's simple enough in theory to fix your mind on Christ, in practice it's difficult to do.

There are a million complications, some big and some little, that nag at your mind and want to bring you down. Sometimes it's things and events, and sometimes it's people. But mostly it is I who trips me up. Thoughts and worries about me. All that's wrong with my situation. Where I'm not and where I might end up. Why it hurts so much. Wondering who is to blame for it all. Feeling sorry for myself. Sinking into the nasty, angry, muck of the self.

He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. Psalm 40:2

And that's where the gratitude needs to come in. Because who can wallow in self-pity when they know they are a child of God? Who can harbor wounds and grudges, fears and anxieties, when they know for certain their lives are in the hands of God? We were not created by God to dwell in inner darkness but to be in the light. To be filled with it, to shine with it, to glow with His glory in this dark world.

...for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light... Ephesians 5:8