Goodbye, 2007!

As I begin this post, I'm 17 minutes into the 2008. As usual, it doesn't feel any different. It won't until tomorrow morning when I have to put that number on things as opposed to 2007. Thankfully, since I work where I do, that's already started to some degree.

From a spiritual standpoint, it was a profitable year for me. I'm closer to the Lord now than I was a year ago, that's for certain. The main thing I learned this year is focus. The more you focus on things, the better you do those things. I'd always barked about that at work since we have three or four things always going at the same time and none of them turn out real well the first time around.

This past year I realized that if I focus on living my life for the Lord instead of just gliding through things avoiding the big problems, I'll be more of a blessed person. That's happened in a big way in the last 365 days.

Prayer is a big part of that. Some of the things I've needed to pray for I have, and honestly, some of those prayers have been answered by teelling me to wait. That's difficult, but I know that's what the Lord wants me to do, so I'll do it.

Another part of the focus thing is where this blog was born. I listened to a message from my friend Doug, and it was a quite refreshing, but still challenging, sermon. Put the Big Rocks in First. I'll do a full thought process on that a little later, but the short synopsis of it is that there are certain things that must go into our lives first. If not, they won't fit at all because of the other stuff that's in there already.

I think I've done pretty well on most of those things, the one that is lacking is Bible reading. That ends starting later today when I start reading through the Bible, hopefully in about 90 days. That should mean I'll be through it all by the end of March. I'm looking forward to reading God's Word and letting it speak to me. The plan at this point is to let the most profound things that hit my mind be reviewed here on this blog each day, or at least on a weekly basis.

As for this blog, I've found that it's easier for me to update this thing on Mondays, and that is what I plan to do through the Lord's will. I might post more often, we'll see, and hopefully the later in the year I go the more stuff I'll read from various sources and be able to post links to stories and audio and all that sort of thing. Time will tell.

Physically, the first 8 months of '07 were my normal self. Then my doc told me that I was in trouble and needed to watch things. This time I got serious, and instead of drinking soft drinks like I used to, I went to all water for about three weeks. That and changing my diet in itself netted me a loss of 23 pounds in about a month. That has slowed down a bit since then, and has gone to a one pound deficit recently. But the net loss, if you can accurately call it that, is 32 pounds. I'm at 313 right now.

That said, I know I'll be a lot better off if I at least lose 60 in the coming year. My boss has lost 90 since this time last year, so I know it's possible. The 32 I've lost so far has come by changing my diet alone and not exercising a lot. That said, I know I need to do that. Thankfully, we have an exercise bike and a treadmill over in the other room that I also plan to start using this year. I would love to have to go buy new clothes this summer.

There are other things in life that have seen progress in the previous year, but I still need to make a few decisions. Please be in prayer for me in that regard.

And finally, I have been really blessed, WAY beyond my own deserving, this year as a sports fan. Not only have my teams won two national championships, but in all of my favorite sports I have found Christian athletes who have become people I look up to. They are real blessings to me when I read their testimonies, from Tamika Catchings to Jerry Moore to Orel Hershiser and so many more. I look forward to reading more about these people in the new year, to find out in a positive way that sports are worth my time...but not all of it!

This past year it has occurred to me as well that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." That's Romans 8:28, my favorite verse. I was amazed a few years ago when I first learned about all the things in the atmosphere that work together to make our weather do what it does...and that there's so much we don't know! I've figured out, based on that and my favorite verse, that the same works in life. The physical maintenance of the body, cleanliness of the surroundings (gotta work on that one!), life at work and at home, dealing with others, keeping things going well financially, being a sports fan, doing what's right no matter what, and just generally living by the Word of God. All of those things work together to make a person what the Lord wants them to be...there's not varying degrees of emphasis on certain things, but the same amount on all. Because when it's all working together, it all works well and the blessings flow. So, I'm starting the ball rolling on a few things, and hopefully that will lead me to a much better place in the Lord's sight when I'm doing this as we enter 2009 in a year from now.

The Lord has richly blessed me in 2007. It's my goal to do His will to where He will bless me even more in 2008.

Happy New Year, everyone!

(end of post...12:47)

Ya gotta focus, man!

Back from a long break...the fact that the long break exists reminds me of something I discovered a few weeks back.

There's no big story to this, nothing big that happened or any such thing. It's just that I've noticed over the last few months that to live for the Lord, you have to be focused.

Back in college, I had no focus at all. Subconsciously, I figured that I could just coast along in life, and as long as I missed the big bumps in the road, I'd be fine. That's okay, I guess, but that's not how it should be, by a long shot.

Thanks be to the Lord that during college, I had at least that little bit of focus to stay out of the bad spots, because it was there on a pretty regular basis. Even as recently as my Tunica, Mississippi, trip in August of 2006 I was close to some pretty bad stuff when I was staying in a casino for four days. Thankfully for me, the Lord was with me all of those times (and He still is!), and when those tempting times came in Tunica, I simply went to sleep, knowing that I absolutely had to get up on time the next morning.

In an effort to keep my focus up, I'm going to start a project on 1/1/08. I'm going to Read the Bible in 90 days. Click here for more. In all my years, I've never read through the Bible, but I'm going to. Now, I'm not using the version those folks use...namely, you can get a bookmark to print out that will tell you what scriptures to read each day, and that's what I plan to use. I won't get into issues regarding what version of the Bible is better here. I use the King James Version, I have since the beginning and I see no need to change now.

That said, as I pass particularly interesting points in the Scriptures, I'll post here on those things and elaborate a bit. I know, it's all interesting, but I'm referring to things that demand my making a comment on it, essentially.

Anyone who wants to join me, let me know!