By now your inbox has been flooded with offers guaranteed to help you lose or gain. The Christmas Crush experienced by UPS drivers serves only to strengthen them to deliver all the home gym / fitness equipment in January. Strength they will need when most of the consumers discover the reality of results gained in only six weeks. “You mean I don’t look like the guy in the television commercial yet?” “Honey, You’ve been flexing those bows for 6 weeks and you look nothing like that chic on TV!” Which one of you bums said that?
The ability to start over again is an element of a new year that I find refreshing. I think it fitting to set goals for a new year. I just think most of the time we under estimate what will be required of us to accomplish the lofty goals we’ve set. If you need to lose weight, have an achievable plan to lose weight. If you need to quit smoking, have an achievable plan to quit smoking. If you need to grow hair, too bad you’re out of luck. Make your goals, set your course and stick to it. In your effort to improve physically, however, don’t crowd out the gains you can achieve spiritually.
You don’t have to learn Greek or Hebrew this year. You don’t have to journey to the holy land on your knees. You could take an attribute or character quality of Christ and work on a specific one each month. The time frame is not really the point. The effort to act like Christ in some area of your life is the point. Will you work on kindness? Mercy? Patience? Holiness? A Commitment to Prayer? Choose one and get going. Try to be kind and merciful and patience in your dealings with others and who knows at the end of six weeks you may start looking like Jesus.
