Now! What kind of life will you paint upon your canvas in Twenty Nineteen (2019)? Will your unbleached life be dedicated to creating goals and aspirations that benefit the lives of future generations? As you move forward into this new year with new ideas, don’t forget the things of the past that were effective. Know this – the life we live this year is our responsibility. So, we should restrain from blaming others if things go south because of the choices we have made.
This year is an opportunity to make afresh resolutions, promises, and renewed or starting a relationship. However, the problem with most people making resolutions is they are short lived. We always begin the year with much enthusiasm only to see it fade away over time. Promises made with a burning desire to achieve won’t last longer than our faith.
As we transition in life, it is fitting to remember those things that appealed to our better nature. Joshua Chamberlain, a Colonel during the Civil War grappled in the aftermath with conveying to his constituents the reasons soldiers went to war. He explorers the idea of “dimensions of loyalty and patriotism” – reminding people of his day the sacrifices that made their current life possible, he said “don’t waste the gift of a new year. Loyalty is not mere conformity; it’s fidelity; it’s truth to faith; it’s the constancy of soul. Its true action is not constrained obedience to a superior, but the keeping of a covenant; free forth-giving to an answering idea of right and good, to which one is spiritually bound.”
Many things painted on my canvas at times were disappointing and perhaps not achievable because they put before what really mattered. Things such as the intellectual pursuit of knowledge, the physical pursuit of pleasure, and the material pursuit of wealth.
However, here is my conclusion of a vivid well-lived life. Keeping God’s commandments because this is the whole duty of humanity. Reverence, love, and serving Him through serving others and living life according to the precepts laid down in His Word through faith. This is the wholeness of a servant leader. The songwriter put it this way: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Him, but to trust and obey.
In the genesis of this New Year a thought comes to mind about pursuing goals to obtain happiness. If more money, or higher position, or more influence is your goal in life, you might find yourself disappointed at life’s end because these are not goals. However, they are the by-product of true hard work. So, seek not success first, but rather truth first and you will find both.” Work to become your greater self, not acquire. And measure your life wealth, by the things you have which you will not exchange for money. Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Never Give Up!
By Chaplain Ghosten
chaplain@lhp.net
