Tonight is going much better than I would have thought, since I am spending New Years Eve alone for the first time in my life. It should go to show that God can work miracles in anyone’s life! Conversely, I really wish that I could get out and make friends. I feel that I am stuck in this track of being alone and withdrawn. We are called to social and spread the good news, but I just seem to be in a circle of sleep, eat, and work. I guess that if I were to make resolutions for the New Year, I would want to keep traveling the unknown roads: Stopping to help the car with flashers on, walking across the room in order to meet someone at a party (the few that I actually go to), helping the poor, donating to a charity, or volunteering for my church. I have said publicly that talk is easy and action is hard. I’m not entirely sure why people try to argue with me on this point. It’s like James says, “show me your works without faith, and I will show you my faith through my works.” I feel the same way for talk. Heading into the New Year, I ask the Spirit to guide and humble me. I can get consumed with perfection and self gratification. I want to be more like the person who says, “I am willing to lay down whatever needs to be laid down for the Lord’s work to be done.” I also want to live out the realization that shortcuts do not lead to love. In a world where life is busy and point A is too far away from point B, we apt to take the shortest route possible. In doing this, we are jeopardizing our friendships and relationships not only with our families but with our friends also. Furthermore, while dashing towards our destination, we fail to help out our fellow human beings. Just like our parents, we fail to form new friends, intimate friends. Unlike our parents, we form less friends and possibly no intimate friends. Are we really destined to live alone? Are we in a position where we can say to our neighbor, “I don’t need you?” and by saying that we are saying, “and you don’t need me!” The great lie of American society is that self is the most important thing to preserve. Quite the opposite of this lie, we need to lay down all things that make us selfish and become selfless. If this is not true then Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about when he said, “True loves knows nothing greater than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” Ultimately in the New Year, I want nothing more than to live in God’s good will and follow Jesus’s examples in life, love and compassion.
Dec 31