2010: A Year in Reflection

Without writing a book, I will simply base this post on Proverbs 13:12 "Not getting what you want can make you feel sick, but a wish that comes true is a life-giving tree."

I look at this past year and thank God for all that He has given me and hasn't given me. I think that we can all be too quick to focus on what we didn't get or what didn't go right for us, but we rarely look at what did go right. I think that this is built into us.

I get to reflect and see how God helped launch the first multi-site campus of Vineyard Community Church and how He used me and my wife to do it. I see how my wife got to quit her job to stay home and be with our kids. I see all the meaningful relationships that have been created this year in my life and those around me. I see how I have started a Bible reading plan and I am 160 days into it with out missing a reading. There are so many more positive things that I can reflect on but it would take forever. I choose to focus on the good rather than on what could make me "sick".

God is good and He is that life-giving tree. I am so thankful that I serve a God who loves me and chooses to extend grace and mercy to me despite my shortcomings. So as I prepare for this new year and I make my resolutions, whether they are physical, emotional, or spiritual, I will reflect on what truly gives me life. And that is Jesus.

My Modern Day Proverbs

Now I don't claim to be the wisest man in the world. That title belonged and will always belong to King Solomon (1 Kings 3:12). But while reading the Proverbs I was inspired to write a few myself. I hope that these words might speak to you as they did to me while I wrote them.

Let all that you do honor the Lord who has nothing but grace and mercy for you.

He has given you all you need when you need it where you need it.

The Lord might need to do more in you before He can do more through you. Not because you are a failure but rather you are a success in process.

Why question your existence? But rather question your purpose. Obviously you are alive, but for what reason.

Your hurt is not meant to keep you down, but instead it is meant for God to pick you up.

If you find yourself in a pattern of destruction, then you might want to redesign that pattern in your life. Patterns lead to paths, paths lead to an end. Which end do you want for yourself?

Faith is not living life blindly. Faith is knowing that you know that you know.

Death is the absence of life, darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good, and a life not worth living is the absence of God.