Time, resolutions, and goals

As I reflect on the things that I've done this past year, and contemplate what I'd like to do the coming year, I feel that many of them are the same things. I've been thinking about the words Jesus Christ spoke, when he said, "for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." In many ways, my treasure hasn't been where I'd like it to be. I've focused too much on the trivial, and not given enough time to the truly significant. In some ways, this is because my time is so limited that I think I can't do something because I would just get started and have to quit to go and do some mundane task, that however ordinary it is, still needs doing. Many of us have the same challenges, and yet, with a little effort, with a little whittling of the stuff that's of no worth or of small value, we can find more time in our days in which to work on things that are more important. I suggest in my life that the things that are most important are 1) God, and 2) Other people. My focus needs to be strengthened in those two areas.

With that in mind, I go forward, attempting to be a better follower of Christ, and in so doing, I will quite naturally become better at serving others. Sure, I have other goals. I will spend some time on them. But they are far less important than the God I love, and the people I love, who after all, are His children too.

I have always been a reactionary, instead of a good planner. Which lends itself well to rescuing people who are in danger, but does not always bode well in encounters with irate people. Responding to anger with anger isn't a Christlike attribute, and when I do such things, I don't have much self-admiration. So, I guess I need to try and keep the good qualities of being reactionary--such as being able to jump into a burning building should the need arise--but jettison the bad qualities of reactionism--the swift anger response in particular. That's what I will work on this year.

I have other goals, but  I will need to think more about them before I can put them down in written form. No one says that you can only start goals at the beginning of the year, after all.