August 26 – Watch Your Life

        1 Timothy 4:16 – "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and [those who hear you]." © NIV, 1973

Proverbs 16:17 - ".....he who guards his way, guards his life."

        In 2010 I spent a week in El Salvador with King's Castle, a mission organization that works in youth evangelism and discipleship. I was with a team of college students from the U.S. and with some locals, participating in "spectacle evangelism" in the greaterr Santa Ana area. We were sleeping in a church building each night, and were transported via rented bus each day to and from our various destinations. The church building was very close to a busy road, and the bus had little room to park between the building and the road. One day, as we were exiting the bus on the highway side, one of the locals, in his decent, but incomplete English, stated "Watch your life", as we had to step from the bus onto the road. We Americans thought it was funny that he had used a phrase that was technically correct in American English but not used in the colloquial way that we say "Be careful!". So it turned out that I now have a perpetual inside joke related to bad English.

        It also turns out, that same phrase is used in I Timothy in the NIV, only in a slightly different context. The warning, however, is still there. It is a call to constantly be on guard about the direction that we are taking and about the worldview we are living. Everyday we should be mindful of how we spend our time, money, resources, ambitious thoughts. All of those things do reflect the worldview that we are living. Surrendering our lives daily and asking for God's guidance and direction the first thing in the morning, is one way to keep on track during the day. Let's guard our thoughts and life while pressing on to know God and his will and plans for our lives. Read I Cor. 16:13 and Prov. 4:23 for further thoughts.

January 3 – New Year's Day

        John 15:5 – "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a person remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing."

        Psalm 1:3 – "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which produces its fruit in season...."

        The music group U2 produced in 1983 a song called "New Year's Day". While it has overtones related to a long-standing feud in Ireland between Protestants and Catholics, it also has ideas related to the above scriptures, as well as some pessimism. Listening to that song forces one to look inside, and ask whether things have changed positively since the previous new year's day.

        When one plants something, that plant cannot move on its own. It has a new place of existence. When a tree sprouts naturally from a seedling, it is stuck in its natural environment; it cannot uproot itself and move to a different location. The same is not true of people. We can pick up our roots and move to different places. Where we tap our resources for growth or stagnation, are daily choices. Let's choose to remain in the source of God's spirit, which produces the fruit in our lives. Read Gal. 5:22, 23, as well as the entire context of the verses above. Both deal with life choices and the resulting fruit that is produced.

        Everyday can't be New Year's Day, but it can be that year's new day in one's life.