It’s the first Monday morning workday of 2011 and I have just wrapped up my weekly prayer time with a couple of other men in downtown Orlando. Our conversation surprised me: no one has made any new year’s resolutions. Since the three of us tend to be future-oriented overachievers, I found it interesting not only that we had not made resolutions, but the reasons behind why we had abstained.
Basically, each of us has realized the need for a more profound sense of resting in God’s love in the present. We are inadequate; he makes us adequate. For me this translates into a fresh study of the meaning of the gospel in my own life, relationships and leadership. On January 1st I began looking at each occurrence of the word “gospel” in the New Testament. The ways Jesus, Luke, Paul and Peter use the word (which means “good news”) has already begun to blow fresh breeze through my soul.
I am praying this will impact the way I interact with people in 2011. Sometimes I receive feedback that my intensity and self-confidence unintentionally push away the very people who are closest to me. If I am living freely in God’s grace, experiencing the gospel each day, I hope that others will feel drawn to Christ in me. By God’s grace, I will have loved, lived and led better by this time next year.
How about you? What’s on your mind as you look ahead to 2011?