Beginning Your Future

Here is my column for Sunday morning:

January 1st started a new year. 2010. It’s a new decade as well. New Year’s Day means different things to different people. Some spend it with their families. Some travel. Some enjoy their day off. Others are recovering from the night before. Others watch parades. Others watch college football and lots of it.

Many people also set New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve never been sure about the difference between a resolution and a goal, but I assume they are about the same thing. We make resolutions or set goals because we have some kind of discontent with who we are. We want to be a little different in the future than we were yesterday. Here are the ten most common New Year’s resolutions Americans make:

1. Spend More Time with Family and Friends
2. Fit in Fitness / Tame the Bulge
3. Quit Smoking
4. Enjoy Life More / Reduce Stress
5. Quit Drinking / Drink Less
6. Get Out of Debt / Save Money
7. Learn Something New
8. Take a Trip
9. Help Others / Volunteer
10. Get Organized

Today we are starting a new worship series called: “Beginning Your Future.” A few weeks ago I was in the big ball at Epcot Center riding Spaceship Earth. It isn’t one of those thrill seeking rides. It is pretty slow-paced, but fascinating. It looks at our past, our present, and our future. One of the phrases I heard near the end of the ride was: “Beginning Your Future.” I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head. It made sense, was obvious, and is something most of us are interested in: Beginning Our Future. We make resolutions, we set goals and we dream about tomorrow.

What we are going to do on the Sundays in January is engage God in the conversation about Beginning Our Future. God wants and has something to say about our present and future. He wants to be part of it and help us have our dreams come true. I look forward to taking this journey with you.

I hope you have a blessed 2010 and I hope your dreams come true.

-Craig