You are probably like me in that I like the snow when it first falls, but when it gets old looking and dirty, I’m ready for it to be gone.  In most of life, we like the freshness or newness that comes with new relationships, adventure, jobs, and countless other things.  The true challenge is keeping that sense of freshness in long-term relationships and commitments. In an attempt to bring back that new feeling, many in our culture switch partners, jobs, and locations.

My wife and I work at keeping our marriage fresh and new even though we’ve been married for over 20 years now.  The same thing can be said for our relationship with God. Do you work at keeping it fresh?  Are you always praying the same prayers, in the same position, in the same location? Why not mix it up in this New Year?  Try praying a different prayer, standing when you pray, or in a new place. Don’t let your marriage or your relationship with God to grow stale and old. Sure it takes effort to have thriving, growing, fresh relationships in your life – but it’s worth it!  Happy New Year!!

Only 45% of Americans usually set New Year’s Resolutions and 38% never set resolutions. What is even more amazing is that only 8% report that they are always successful in achieving their resolutions. Why such a low level of success? I think it could be one of two reasons, either the goals set are unrealistic or the person setting them wasn’t committed to their success.

For a goal to have any value it must be realistic and be worth achieving. How about you? Do you have any goals for 2010? Clear out the ones that are unrealistic (i.e. win the lottery, grow 2 inches in adulthood…) and commit yourself to ones worth achieving. Look at your home life, spiritual life, physical life, and emotional life and make a list of some things that would improve your condition in those areas. Decide on a plan of attack or strategy to fulfill them. Then, determine to allow nothing to stop you from achieving those goals in 2010. Be sure to stop at least weekly at the beginning of the year to assess how you are doing. Make any necessary corrections, then get moving! You can achieve more than you think! 

“I can do EVERYTHING through him who give me strength.”  – Philippians 4:13

This time of year reminds us of how we serve a God who is able to make all things new. He can take the old life we used to live and make us a new creation by His awesome power. Our God is the author of new beginnings, miracles and promises of hope and a future.

Now is a great time to set a new course for yourself in 2010. The good news of God is that you don’t have to be the same person in the coming year that you have in prior ones. What in your life would you like to see changed? – Kick a bad habit, stop an addiction, get past a hurt, overcome emotional baggage? Whatever the case may be, why don’t you determine for this to be your year of victory? God is able to give the strength you need to be an overcomer and turn your life around. This is your opportunity to start over with a new beginning!

You may be a little like me and are tired of trying to be politically correct in our expressions during this time of the year. Many have been coached in retail to say, “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” to customers to avoid offending those who don’t celebrate “CHRIST-mas”. My feeling has always been, that those who want to take offense can offer back “Happy Holidays” if they choose, but if you take Christ out of Christmas then you really don’t have a happy holiday either. It’s the birth of a Savior that causes the celebration. Since that is the case, maybe we can start sharing a new greeting “Happy Holy Days”, since it is the Holy Savior that has put the Christmas holiday on the calendar. Oh, and it’s His calendar too, because our dates are “in the year of our Lord”, which makes New Years a “Happy Holy Day” also.

You know the line that Karen Carpenter recorded in the song “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year” that says “be of good cheer”? As I was hearing that on the radio in my car this morning, it reminded me of similar words by the angel to shepherds “I bring you good news of great joy.” Shouldn’t a Christian be of good cheer everyday because of this? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the Christmas season, but should it take twinkling lights, decorated trees and maybe some egg nog to get us to “be of good cheer”?

For the believer in Christ, everyday is Christmas because we understand that He came for us. Our hearts are filled with joy because our sins are no longer counted against us and we stand in right relationship with the holy God of the universe. Let’s be prepared to spread some Christmas cheer long after the lights are put away, the tree’s disassembled, and the egg nog is gone. Because of His birth in our hearts we have reason to “be of good cheer” all year round!

Yesterday morning, the traffic was so snarled in Avon that I couldn’t get anywhere! If you were out in this area at that time you know what I’m talking about. We had a little bit of snow overnight and instead of it melting and dissolving; it melted and turned into a sheet of ice! Snow I can handle, but ice is a different story. The worst part was the feeling of being unable to control the situation and get my daughter to school. I could have walked her there faster than I was going.
After returning home in utter frustration and feeling sorry for myself in wasting time and getting nowhere, it dawned on me how small my problem was compared to those in a ditch or an accident. I was still able to go home and get some of my work done while waiting on the roads to improve and traffic subside. How easy it is to get caught up in how bad we have it, when there are plenty of others who have it much worse. I’m asking God to help me be grateful in all things during this busy season, so He can be seen in me and I can watch for Him in others.

Just the other day, I was getting ready to leave the house for the office and noticed that I failed to charge my phone overnight.  I thought, “No big deal, it still has half a charge.”  Later on that day, I realized it was a big deal when my phone got down in the “Red Zone” and shut off!  Not only did it completely shut down, but even though I got it plugged into my car adapter, it still wouldn’t come back on.  What I later learned from a fellow “Red Zoner” was that once you deplete the battery so low, it requires extra time to get it charged enough to come back on. 

This made me think of how often we spiritually run until our battery is depleted and then it requires extra time to get ourselves healthy again.  My phone has all these cool and helpful apps on it, but none of them would work once I ran the battery so far down.  Likewise, you and I have gifts and abilities through the Holy Spirit to use, but they don’t work well when we are depleted.  I’m convinced that there are divorces and other relationship struggles that could be avoided if we would just stay FULLY CHARGED.  It’s around this premise that I came up with the title for this new blog site. 

The other reason for the title is my favorite verse in Scripture, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  I believe that it is Christ’s intent that each of us lives a fully charged life that reveals His power through our humanity.  To this end, I’ll be writing from personal experiences, things that I read or observe, along with anything I learn from others to help you enjoy the fully charged life. 

Thanks for finding this resource!  Bookmark this page and I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

Just the other day, I was getting ready to leave the house for the office and noticed that I failed to charge my phone overnight.  I thought, “No big deal, it still has half a charge.”  Later on that day, I realized it was a big deal when my phone got down in the “Red Zone” and shut off!  Not only did it completely shut down, but even though I got it plugged into my car adapter, it still wouldn’t come back on.  What I later learned from a fellow “Red Zoner” was that once you deplete the battery so low, it requires extra time to get it charged enough to come back on. 

This made me think of how often we spiritually run until our battery is depleted and then it requires extra time to get ourselves healthy again.  My phone has all these cool and helpful apps on it, but none of them would work once I ran the battery so far down.  Likewise, you and I have gifts and abilities through the Holy Spirit to use, but they don’t work well when we are depleted.  I’m convinced that there are divorces and other relationship struggles that could be avoided if we would just stay FULLY CHARGED.  It’s around this premise that I came up with the title for this new blog site. 

The other reason for the title is my favorite verse in Scripture, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  I believe that it is Christ’s intent that each of us lives a fully charged life that reveals His power through our humanity.  To this end, I’ll be writing from personal experiences, things that I read or observe, along with anything I learn from others to help you enjoy the fully charged life. 

Thanks for finding this resource!  Bookmark this page and I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.