I was just reading some blogs...catching up on the backlog in my Google Reader...and there were several in particular that caught my eye. The first one was a re-post of a blog by Sara Frankl (http://www.gitzengirl.blogspot.com/). She has, maybe more than anyone I know, reason to be self-pitying and to feel defeated by the circumstances of her life. But she refuses to. In fact the choice that she has made to feel gratitude and joy has become so much a part of her nature that she does not give way to even moments of self pity...She automatically redirects herself to focus on God and on His strength in the times when she feels that she cannot go it alone.
Then I read a blog on gratitude (http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/) on the ten lepers and how, when the one returned to Jesus to say "Thank You," he was made well. And the Greek word for "well" implies a spiritual wellness and salvation as well as a physical one. The others may have been made physically well, but he had obtained WHOLENESS and internal healing as a result of his expression of gratitude. I've written on the topic of gratitude before, but had forgotten to practice what I'd preached. And as a result I've allowed my circumstances to chip away at my wholeness and my integrity and have become more fractured.
Then I read Pastor Ryan's blog (http://www.thisisreverb.com/) which delineated his numerous goals for 2010. I was astounded at the scope and the magnitude and the ambition of these goals. If I achieved even ONE of them, I would feel that my year was a success. When New Year's rolled around and my mind turned to resolutions, there were lots of things that I wanted to STOP doing, but there was little that I aimed for. Little that I desired to accomplish. There, I think is the crux of my problem.
This leads me to the next blog. A good friend of mine, Diana Flegal, wrote an article for a blog that challenged me to my core. (See: http://hartlineliteraryagency.blogspot.com/2010/01/are-you-person-of-action.html)
Her entire blog post is inspiring but there is one quote which I believe, sums it up:
we are looking at a New Year with new opportunities to act and resolve, to do
something about our goals and move toward our dreams. Doing nothing is not an
option. We must take our future into our hands, forget the failures of our past,
the rejections ....and become a person of action.
This was not just another motivational blurb...it was an arrow shot from the mouth of God to my heart. I have been sitting back on my excuses...aiming for nothing...and feeling sorry for myself because ofthe difficulties in my life. I need to set some concrete goals. Define my desires and work toward making them happen. And not only that, but I need to be grateful for the things I have....for the things that God has made me and given me.
And one last thought I'd like to leave with you: I also read today a quote by Mother Theresa. It ends with the following words:
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the end, it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.
It is between me and God. Not between me and my obstacles. Not between me and my family. Not even between me and my body, which is waging war against me. It's between me and God. And it is to God that I will have to answer for how I used it.
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