“Determined and Courageous” are some of my best strengths, and I am proud of those qualities. But, an equivalent wording is “Stubborn and Reckless”, which are serious weaknesses for me. I must find a way to balance my decisions better.
Unbelief is a universal solvent… it dissolves everything, including itself.
I don’t define myself. I discover who God made me. I find out from God who I was always supposed to be. He is at work in me to transform and empower me to be that person.
Accept the “given” good, rather than the “desired” good. Only then can I enjoy my unknown future. C.S.Lewis wrote, “How easy it is to become discontented and lose our joy when we don’t get what we had expected. We so easily refuse the real good that God has given us and make it bitter by focusing on what we thought we deserved or expected.“
The key to a peace-filled life: maximize your hopes and minimize your expectations.
The three biggest obstacles in life are sin, death and hell. Christ has saved me from sin and hell. My confidence in Christ’s gift of salvation remains. But, there is nowhere to hide from death. No one is exempt from life’s trials, or the final struggle of death. I am increasingly reminded of my baptism and the promise God made to me in that sacrament: “I will lead you through everything that stands in your way to eternal life.”
People detach from others to cope/survive. Detachment is not rejection.
Previous Years
2023: Christ’s sacrifice doesn’t restore us to a place equal to Adam’s condition before the Fall, but to an existence far above that. God is using all means necessary to transform me into the person He originally envisioned me to be, Christ-like, but uniquely me. I want to BE that person God envisions. I don’t want to “do things” to achieve that, I want “live” my way into it.
2022: God is dismantling my “less mature” relationship with Him (based on fear, sacrifice and obedience)… and building a “more mature” relationship (based on faith, love and trust). God is willing to destroy anything in my life that blocks my access to Him, no matter how precious those things are to me.
2021: God doesn’t want me to be less human. He wants me to discover my ultimate humanity, in union with Christ, partaking of His nature.
I am a unique individual, so my NEW LIFE in Christ is also unique to me. My NEW LIFE looks and acts in ways that are completely my own, designed specifically for me by God’s original thoughts about me before I was born.
My NEW LIFE is delivered, born and nurtured by God in a unique process, based on the combination of His Divine Will for me and my cooperation. This process may be easier or harder based on my compliance.
The end result of my NEW LIFE cannot be stolen from me, nor can it be ruined. So, even my mistakes, failures and sins will be used by God to accomplish the good result of His Plan for the eternal outcome of my NEW LIFE.
2020: God wants to talk to me about Himself, but He also wants to talk to me about me! This is a journey of “interiority”. The goal is not selfish introspection, but divine illumination of who God made me to be. During this process, I discover more about us both, and I am always drawn closer to Him than before.
2019: I was ashamed of a lifetime of sin, and I felt I had wasted the spiritual opportunities God had given me. The Greek word “teleios” means completion of purpose, full maturity, perfection. I was afraid that my growth as a Christian had stalled, or possibly even stopped. However, God’s love for me IS strong enough for Him to finish what He started in me (teleios). He will do everything that is needed. My job is just to surrender.
