Reflect. Resolve. Recharge.

Now two days in to the new year, I have turned the page. I just need to keep turning the pages rather than get stuck on the same chapter or re-read the past chapters.

Lots of people choose a word to focus on their new year. I thought about joining that team, but it really isn’t who I am.

Lots of people make resolutions, and overwhelmingly, those resolutions are out the window before the month is over. I know resolutions do not stick. So I do my best to avoid them.

However. Every January 1, I reflect and then resolve to recharge. And this year is no different.

I have been reflecting on what I need to change.

• I talk about others, and it is not always kind.

• I mindlessly scroll on my phone too much, and it is not always productive.

• I stopped walking and caring about what I eat, and my body shows the lack of focus.

• I do not spend enough time in the Word or in prayer, and my soul is parched.

These four things are easily remedied. Easily. I just need to acknowledge and then resolve to do better.

Sam I am wants to get back to in-person 7:30 am Sunday morning church and wants to read one book a month.

Two days in, I would grade us at about 90%.

In the last 36 hours or so, I have walked about 15 miles, I have not talked about others, I have done better with food, I have spent some dedicated time in prayer, and we were in church and on the “front row” by 7:28 am.

His mercies are new every morning, and tomorrow is a new day to keep resolving to recharge.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. – Saint Francis of Assisi

Tonight, as I watch the suspended NFL game coverage, I am reminded to be grateful.

I am grateful for my health.

I am grateful for the sound of the rain outside, while I sit in a warm house and watch a fire in the fireplace.

I am grateful for sore muscles.

I am grateful for fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, Lori Mendenhall’s recipe she gave me 30+ years ago.

I am grateful my Dad is doing so well.

I am grateful that football teams go to their knees in prayer and acknowledge the need for God’s intervention.

I am grateful for a quiet Christmas and New Year and for the blessing of long weekends and days off from work to focus on the reflecting, resolving, and recharging.

I am grateful for a new exhaust fan above my oven.

I am grateful for the simple joy two cats bring to this home.

I am grateful for a son who loves to read.

I am grateful for a hockey game first.

I am grateful for my brother and sister-in-law pastors and their influence in our lives.

I am grateful for family that loves to laugh and for a recycle dumpster for all the unnecessary boxes that were part of Adam’s exchange gift, a small pocket knife…

I am grateful for the opportunity to volunteer every Monday with our church food mobile and every Thursday at Dad’s apartment complex.

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,
Praised for you or criticized for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.
And now, O wonderful and holy God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, 
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it also be made in heaven.  Amen. – John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer

Reflect. Resolve. Recharge. Triple re.