It's decision time The beginning of a new year is a time to look forward. Where do we want to be at the dawn of 2013? What do we have to do to get there? Answering questions like these can make you feel like you’re part of a Zig Ziglar seminar for success in selling vacuum cleaners or Cadillacs. And for some of us, just the year “2013” sounds like the name of some futuristic novel. But of course it isn’t. The year 2013 is 12 short months from now … just the blink of an eye. Did you know it takes the brain 20 minutes to register the fact that the stomach is full? Clearly most of us could use – and God could have designed our bodies to have – an instant “off switch” so that we would know when we have eaten exactly what we need. But He didn’t. My wife Nancy, whose thoughts inspire many of my columns, says that perhaps that’s because God wants us to have everything in abundance. He leaves it to us to savor and enjoy until we decide we are sated. So how long does it take for the brain to realize that our lives are full? Because of His grace we have been left to decide for ourselves when to look up and weep with thanks. We continue to stuff more of everything – good and bad – into our lives until finally we look around and realize that there is no way earthly things can fill that God-shaped hole in our souls. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” How amazingly profound! We stand at the opening of this year – on the brink of greatness. What could we do if we decided that our lives are brimming … that this is the year to bring overwhelming love, peace, and health to the world to the extent we are able? What precedents could we set? What goals might we reach? How would we, through our decisions each day, impact the lives of others and feel the blessings that such efforts impart to the giver? It is our best wish at National Christian Foundation that we all decide correctly, that we take this precious earthly experience – this life with a clock – and move forward with the time given us so generously by God to extend His blessings to others and in so doing extend the work of our Lord Jesus into today’s world. Here’s a great song for all of us to kick off 2012. Happy New Year! Jim Cotterill is President of National Christian Foundation's Indiana office. Add a comment
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