On the 5th Day of January…

…my true love gave to me…

Dear Reader:

I find myself needing to get my blogging fix.

The year just started and here I am breaking a resolution. What resolution am I breaking? The one from my previous post in which I declared I’d be posting once a week on Sundays.

Well—it’s not Sunday.

Hopefully, my dear reader, you won’t mind. I simply can’t wait to publish a post until January 7th. It’s too long to be quiet, especially in a year of making decisions.

In one of the #BlogJanuary prompts earlier this week the question was asked: “What are some of your challenges?” Three come to mind: focus, time, and choices.

As Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, reminds us: there is a time for everything.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

[In case you’re new here, this is a Christian blog, so we’re going to put some Bible on it and include Jesus in our conversation. I encourage you to stick around though and not let that scare you off. If you see things from a different worldview or if talking about spiritual things makes you queasy, know that you’re still welcome here.]

Focus

Ye olde dictionary defines focus as a point of concentration. Given the myriad of distractions we all face daily, it can be downright difficult to decide which one of our competing priorities we should focus on. I think none of us pay attention like we once did (speaking to you older, more seasoned people).

Think: What holds your interest?

Scripture encourages us to focus on the right things.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

What would it look like if you and I focused on things that are noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable? What if we focused our energy and efforts on those things that are excellent and praiseworthy?

Perhaps it’s just old, jaded me, but it seems like if we did that we’d turn our lives upside down. We might actually make a difference. We could just do some good. We might even help somebody today. [Am I helping somebody!?!]

It is easy to get caught up in those things that the world clamors for us to pay attention to rather than what we ought to keep our hearts, minds, and souls focused on.

It’s easy to focus on the darkness and miss the light.

Time

Have you ever wondered what the Bible says about how we should spend our time?

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

We should be wise and make the most of time. Why? Because the days are filled with evil.

Let’s spend a minute unpacking that thought.

God’s Word seems to indicate that there are a few better options we could pick amidst a sea of lesser possibilities. But, I think it’s saying more than that.

We can spend our time wisely or we can spend it foolishly. How we spend our finite amount of time on this Earth is up to us. [You do realize our time here has an end date, right!?!]

Let’s spend it wisely…

Choices

Life is filled with choices. God graciously and generously gives us the freedom to make our own decisions.

Our decisions—the choices we make—yield consequences. Sometimes the results of our choices are good. Other-times, not so much. Like Solomon, we should ask God to give us wisdom and discernment.

We grow with every choice we make. Unless, we are foolish or arrogant, and as a result do not learn from our decisions. Don’t worry about being perfect and making all the right choices. You won’t. Thankfully, we tend to learn more from those choices that don’t turn out the way we expect than those that go the way we thought they should.

Please hear this: anyone who claims they’ve never made a wrong choice simply hasn’t had many choices. Getting it wrong teaches us how to get it right. To get it right, you must risk getting it wrong.

Landing the plane

Okay. Maybe we will post more than once a week—how’s that sound?

I pray you’ve gotten something useful from this post. Keep what you like—toss the rest.

[P.S. #BlogJanuary is annual blogging event ]

Love, joy, and peace, and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™