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How to have a truly happy new year.

For the first time in years, I don’t remember my New Year’s resolution from January. Usually, I write it down in my journal or on a note I stick to my mirror. There’s been many of those dog-eared sticky notes from years past. The year of contentment. Speaking life. We passed pancakes across the breakfast table on January 1st this year. “What do you want from 2018?” I can’t remember my answer. I know what I didn’t want though. I didn’t want to walk into her office and share the parts of my life I’m inclined to hide. I didn’t want to Facetime her the day after she delivered her baby that never breathed. I didn’t want to spend four months wondering how I’d walk into her house on Christmas day and see her empty chair. I didn’t want to go on another first date that led nowhere. We sit across from each other in a little coffee shop in Colorado, picking at a charcuterie board. “When I think about all of the things I have left to go through,” her voice cracks....
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The Extraordinary Book

He looks across the table at us, looks us right in the eyes and tells us how it’s changed his life.

Dedicating himself to the Spirit before the birds start singing, before the rest of the world is even awake. He takes the Word of God in hand and says something like this, “Lord, I believe this book. Every word. And I give myself to you to use.”

It’s scandalous. How he whispers this every morning in the middle of a world that says the Words of the Book are antiquated and outdated. He dares to do this in a world where even us Christians have difficulty accepting the Words if they go against our sensitive ears.

Even as he’s telling us, I’m wondering if I have the courage to make such a declaration in the quiet of my bedroom, in the wee hours of the morning. “I believe the Book.”

And I’d go to work and work like I believe the Book. And I’d have lunch with my friends and talk like I believe the Book. I’d go to parties and socialize like I believe the Book.

It’s terrifying because sometimes I act like I know better than the Scripture. I downplay the Words that are difficult. The issues of obedience, sacrifice, servant-hood. None of those make sense in a world of self-glorification. I find myself getting far too close to the words the Serpent said in the Garden. Did God really mean that?

Yes, yes He did mean it. He still means it today.

So, why does the man look at us across the table and look us right in the eyes to tell us all this? Because it’s changed his life.

“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29

The words about Sin are accompanied by the words about Redemption. And the words about Obedience are accompanied by the words about Great Reward. And Death is replaced with Resurrection.

Because the Book does not provide the option for a bits ‘n pieces approach. It’s all or nothing.
And that’s what he’s telling us across the table, eyes sparkling. The Spirit takes his whole life, just takes over.

And that’s when life starts to get really good.


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